West Indies skipper Jason Holder extended his support to Jofra Archer and urged people to rally behind the England speedster, who made a disappointing revelation that he has been a subject of racial abuse on social media ever since the news of him breaching the bio-secure protocols surfaced.

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Holder said there should be a "harsher penalty" for racial remarks and that Archer would have been traumatised by it.

Jofra had made an unauthorised trip to his home in Hove after the first Test against West Indies in Southampton. As a consequence, he was dropped from the side for the second Test at Old Trafford and in addition fined the value of his match fee. Moreover, the 25-year-old was forced to isolate for five days and undergo two COVID-19 tests before being allowed to rejoin the squad.

Despite him apologising for the mistake, Archer said he was racially abused and was made to feel like a criminal.

"People are humans and make mistakes and it's just important we all learn from Jofra's mistake and appreciate the severity of the situation. We all know Jofra well from his time growing up in Barbados and let me tell you he's a really good guy. He's also young and I'm sure he didn't mean to harm anyone," Holder wrote in his column for the Daily Mail.

"I sympathise with him. I read his column and you don't want to see what has gone on with Jofra happening to anyone. For him to have been racially abused in New Zealand last winter and for it now to be resurfacing would traumatise any individual.

"More than ever, now is the time for us all to unite behind him and show as much support as we can. We need to eradicate racism and abuse and anything we as a West Indies team can do to help him we will do. We all need to put our heads together to see what can be done," the West Indies captain added.

Holder also slamming the culture on social media wherein he believes people can get away easily after making offensive comments.

"Social media is always in our faces every time we pick up our phone and I think the people who run Instagram and Twitter, in particular, need to get a firmer grip on what goes on. You just cannot pop up on someone's social media and leave an abusive comment and get away with it. There should be a harsher penalty to make sure it is handled with the severity it deserves,” he wrote.

"Jofra has certainly copped some flak since he started playing for England and we sympathise with him. As professional athletes, we all go through it and I would just encourage him to have his support system close by.

"We will all rally round him. Now is the time to come together and find solutions for these problems. I haven't spoken to Jofra yet about this but I will do. It will certainly be good to see him back on the park and compete against him again."

Jofra Archer is available to play in the third and final Test. His return will also bolster England’s chances of winning the series after the hosts won the second Test by 113 runs and levelled the series 1-1.

England skipper Joe Root has also made it clear that Archer’s mistake would not be held against him at the time of team selection.