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It’s bad enough that your star bowler has to miss the first Test of the post-Ashes rebuild because he’s at the IPL. It’s worse that his absence appears beyond the ECB’s control.
Yet that is the situation England and Jofra Archer find themselves in with only three weeks to go before the series opener against New Zealand at Lord’s – a game Ben Stokes’s side cannot afford to lose as they look to put their disastrous Australia tour behind them and vindicate the board’s decision to retain Brendon McCullum as coach.
Crazily, Archer’s arrangement with Rajasthan Royals takes precedence over the needs – and those needs are urgent – of the Test team, the shop window for cricket in this country and the format that still pays the bills.
As the former England batsman Mark Butcher put it on the Wisden podcast: ‘I find it absolutely ridiculous that you can be rested from an England Test match because you’ve been playing in the IPL.’ He is not alone in his view.
Crazily, Jofra Archer’s arrangement with Rajasthan Royals of the IPL takes precedence over the needs – and those needs are urgent – of the England Test team
Archer will miss England’s series opener against New Zealand at Lord’s – a match Brendon McCullum’s side cannot afford to lose
Archer is only partially to blame. Had he pulled out of the 2025 IPL, at a time when England were keen to manage his workloads ahead of his planned return to Test cricket, tournament rules would have seen him banned for two years.
Since he then picked up £1.2m at auction, that would have cost him a lot of money, and the ECB are wary of depriving their star players life-changing sums at a delicate moment for the tug-of-war between Test cricket and the T20 franchises.
But politics are involved too. The IPL now insist that players can’t leave their tournament early, which is understandable on one level, but also a big ask.Â
This year’s competition runs from March 28 to May 31: if your team reach the final, you’ll be out of commission for international cricket for more than two months. God knows what happens if and when the IPL expands.
And because the BCCI, the Indian board, call the shots at every conceivable level of the game, the ECB feel powerless to resist.
They have been stung before. Last year, Jacob Bethell had to keep warming the bench for Royal Challengers Bengaluru, costing him the chance to play in the one-off Test against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge and allowing Ollie Pope to cement his place with a facile 171.
His innings, followed by a hundred against India at Headingley, had predictable consequences: England felt obliged to pick him for the rest of the summer and for the start of the Ashes. Â
If England lose the opening Test, the absence of Archer will be in the spotlight Â
Jacob Bethell is also at the IPL and his participation last year eventually cost him a place in the England Test team for the Ashes
Seven more Tests brought a lone half-century, and stunted Bethell’s development. By the time he finally got a go in Australia, marshalling the chase at Melbourne and scoring a brilliant 154 at Sydney, it was too late.
If Rajasthan reach the play-offs, the only way Archer is going to get any red-ball overs into his legs before the second Test against New Zealand at the Oval on June 17 is by bowling in the nets.
Rob Key, the ECB’s managing director of men’s cricket, sounded frustrated when he touched on the issue on Wednesday. But he also sounded resigned, saying: ‘I think that’s the world we live in at the moment.’
He did his best to put a positive spin on Archer’s absence, suggesting he would be fresh and raring to go if and when he does take on New Zealand. But which MD, under pressure himself after the Ashes debacle, would feel comfortable embarking on a new era without his best XI? If England end up chasing leather at Lord’s, the consternation will only grow.
