England pacer Chris Jordan is garnering criticism for his performance in the T20 World Cup 2021 semi-final against New Zealand in Abu Dhabi on November 10.
Jordan conceded 31 runs in his three overs as New Zealand chased down England’s total of 166/4 with an over to spare.
The Kiwis needed 57 off the final four overs and the 17th over bowled by Jordan proved to be crucial, with Kiwi batters Daryl Mitchell and Jimmy Neesham smashing 23 runs from it.
While some targetted the pacer for the costly over that knocked England out of the T20 World Cup, former West Indies skipper Daren Sammy and English pacer Jofra Archer feel Jordan or anyone’s name shouldn’t be pointed out for the loss.
In fact, Sammy went on to say that Chris Jordan is being blamed for his skin colour and he quoted a headline criticizing the latter’s performance on Twitter.
“This headline is ridiculous and so is this article but hey what’s new.. As per usual blame the Black guy. Just like the Euros. Smfh. Didn’t hear all that talking when @JofraArcher won England the worldcup. @CJordan is still one of the best in that role,” Sammy tweeted.
On the other hand, Jofra didn’t bring the racism angle into it but he believes it is inappropriate to single out one player after the loss.
“Well if the headline alone isn’t an invitation for abuse idk what is , how can you dive into one man’s stats to cast blame ? If you don’t like him just say that Ben but I have a problem with this entire article. Really makes me wonder what will happen the
*day I don’t perform to certain standards , Cj has given his all for his country time after time and it is a game of cricket it is unpredictable and mistakes do happen so don’t get here for one second and single out one person,” Archer wrote.
“This has nothing to do with RACE and let me repeat that , my only problem is the singling out of one player in a defeat,” he added.
Chris Jordan played 6 matches in the T20 World Cup 2021 for England, returning with 6 wickets at an economy rate of 6.84 while his best figures were 3/17 against Australia.