Playing cricket for England - or not - nice work if you can get it: Chris Waters
HAS there ever been a better time to be a top-class cricketer?
The question is rhetorical. The answer, of course, is obviously not.
Jofra Archer is the proof of that.
While England and New Zealand do battle at Lord’s in the opening Test of the summer, Archer is…well… I don’t know what Archer is doing.
Sitting on a beach in Barbados, catching a few rays?
Sipping a rum and coke beneath a Bajan sunset?
Basically, whatever Archer does when Archer is back at home on his native island, which is the state of play at present after he was given time off following his stint at the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Applied to any other workplace in “the real world”, so to speak, this situation would be quite unthinkable.
Can you imagine your employer contracting you for 12 months but allowing you to skip two-to-three months to go and work for somebody else, or letting you take a break instead of fulfilling important commitments in your main role – in this case, a Test match? and not just any, but the 150th to be played at Lord’s?
Yet this is the astonishing power that the players wield now – and the subservience of English cricket to the IPL juggernaut, with England keen to keep India sweet for commercial reasons.
Talk about nice work if you can get it from the players’ point of view, with Archer earning huge sums on top of his England central contract.
Ben Stokes, the England Test captain, defended this situation on the eve of the Lord’s Test, pointing out that players such as Archer could walk away from international cricket were England to put their foot down on the issue.
“There is a situation where it could get messy and players like Jofra might not play for England again if you handle it in a different way, and that is not good for anyone,” said Stokes.
“Jofra has shown that he’s committed and loves playing for England. Just because he’s not available for this first Test match does not change that.”
I would respectfully disagree, however.
Archer is already incredibly well-paid and has earned vast sums from the game.
He will earn more from his contract in The Hundred this summer (£400,000) than the average working man will earn in years.
If the rich want to get richer, let them.
In the meantime, let’s have people playing for England who would give their eyeteeth to do so.