ASHES 2019: "Heartbreaking" to see Jofra play for England instead of West Indies, says Tino Best

Barbados-born Jofra Archer became eligible to play for England earlier this year.

Archer made his Test debut at Lord's | Getty

Former pacer Tino Best considers loss of Jofra Archer to England as a massive failure of cricket administrators in the Caribbean who couldn't ensure that the Barbados-born speedster plays and does well internationally for West Indies. 

Archer was once fast tracked into the West Indies U-19 set-up before he was curiously left out of the squad for the junior World Cup in 2014 and decided to leave the system seeking better opportunities elsewhere. 

He plied his trade in various T20 leagues across the globe and also became eligible to play for England after spending a legal term in UK as a citizen. 

Kickstarting his international career in May, Archer played a key role in ensuring three lions' maiden World Cup triumph earlier this summer, before, of course, making his Test debut in the second Ashes Test at Lord's last week. 

He bowled with the kind of pace and hostility never seen from an England pacer before and scalped five wickets in the drawn encounter. 

Hence, Tino was left wondering what if the 24-year-old fast bowler was doing all that he did for the West Indies. 

"The Barbados Cricket Association and the West Indies Cricket Board has to put things in place rapidly so we don’t lose players like Archer etc in the future, as a lover of West Indies cricket this is heartbreaking he isn’t wearing Maroon," he wrote over Twitter on Saturday (August 18) while Archer was troubling the Aussies with his quick and sharp bouncers. 

 

 
 

By Kashish Chadha - 20 Aug, 2019

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