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Jofra Archer took to the field for his former school team in Barbados, but without the knowledge of Rob Key, the managing director of England men’s cricket.
As a centrally contracted player, Archer’s schedule should be controlled by the England and Wales Cricket Board, who have already decided he would not enter the draft for the lucrative Indian Premier League next Spring.
But at the weekend the fast bowler played for Christ Church Foundation in Barbados, taking four wickets for 18, bowling a mixture of pace and left-arm spin. He is listed on the scores website as having also scored 11 with the bat.
Archer was raised in Barbados before moving to England at the age of 20 in 2015, and he had been recovering in his country of birth having aggravated his recurrent elbow injury travelling out with the World Cup squad to India as a travelling reserve.
When asked about Archer taking part in the match, Key said: “I’m not aware of that – I’ll find out.”
The game itself was a three-day game paused for the rest of the working week before finishing at the weekend, but Archer returned to the UK on Sunday and is not expected to play a further part.
In terms of managing Archer’s recovery, Key said: “We don’t want to put any sort of deadlines on him. That’s what we’ve done in the past, we’re trying to learn from that.
“Actually now we’re taking control of him coming back. An elbow injury is a complicated place to have an injury. So we just want to take this as slow as possible.”
He added: “Jofra was keen to go into the IPL auction but we just feel like, actually, the best way to do this now is just for us to be in control of it.
“If it takes an extra couple of months, but he gets another couple of years out of his career, and gets back fully. I think he’s worth his while in gold.”
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