Cricket fans around the world are getting impatient for the first cricket match that will get underway on 8th July between England and West Indies, for a Test series. This time it will be even more exciting as the England pacer will be playing against his native country in a bilateral series for the very first time.
For the unversed, Jofra Archer was born in Barbados and played for West Indies cricket at Under-19 level but decided to play for England cricket team at the international level as his father is from England. Jofra Archer made his debut for England cricket team last year and impressed one and all by helping his team win its first-ever World Cup. During the World Cup tournament, Jofra turned out to be the highest wicket-taker for England cricket team. He also bowled the famous super over in the final.
Recently, writing about the upcoming series in his column for the Daily Mail, Jofra Archer expressed that he expects a lot of people to tune into the match as live sports will be returning after a long time. He wrote:
“It’s exciting that England and West Indies will be the teams to start world cricket back up again, laying down the platform for other countries to follow,”
He added:
“Obviously as the only cricket on, all eyes will be on it, and I expect that there will be a lot more television viewers than would have been the case had things been normal. I expect people who don’t usually watch cricket will tune in — because it’s live sport, not pre-recorded. If they are like me they will have had their fill of re-runs,”
Recently, West Indies pacer Kemar Roach, who used to play with Jofra Archer in the Caribbean while growing up, said that there is no friendship between the two when they are on the field. He had said:
“Jofra made his decision and he’s done a fantastic job for England so far but there will be no friendships during this series,”
Jofra Archer also reacted to Kemar Roach’s statement about ‘no more friendship’. Talking about the same, Jofra defended him by saying that his statements shouldn’t be blown out of proportion. He said:
“Let’s not get this out of proportion. There will be rivalry there but when Kemar said there will be ‘no friendships’ it sounds a lot worse than it actually is. Obviously, we all grew up in the Caribbean and it’s customary for us to say ‘we will be friends at the end of the game’. That’s exactly what he meant.”
He added:
“It’s not as though he is going to walk past me or be rude, it’s just that when we are on the field we will play hard cricket,”
