Jofra Archer Asked Ben Stokes how to Deal with Media Attention

Jofra Archer committed a mistake and was punished for the same. For breaking bio-secure protocols he was drooped from the team for second Test between England and West Indies. After staying in isolation for five days, Archer wrote on Daily Mail about the social media abuse and negative headlines he has been a part of in last few days.

Jofra Archer on last week of quarantine

After breaking England & Wales Cricket Board’s biosecure protocols, Jofra Archer was sent for a 5-day quarantine in his hotel room and dropped from the second Test against West Indies. He wrote about this critical and controversial phase in his column, “This whole week has been extremely tough and to spend five days in isolation has given me a lot of thinking time on where I am at. When I walked outside of my room for the first time since being placed into self-isolation for breaking the Covid-19 protocols, I heard the cameras clicking with every single step I took. The whole spectacle made me feel uneasy. I know what I did was an error of judgement and I have suffered the consequences of that. I haven’t committed a crime and I want to start feeling myself again.”

He also shared how he had to seek psychological assistance for the series of events last week he had to go through. He then spoke to Ben Stokes about handling such attention. “I spoke briefly to the doctor about how I’m feeling and also to Ben Stokes on Monday night. Ben tried to advise me on how to deal with being in the spotlight of international sport.”

“How fickle cricket is”

Jofra Archer highlighted on the kind of attention a professional cricketer gets. He wrote about his recent realizations. “The second innings in Southampton showed me how fickle cricket is. In the first innings, I hear I am this and that – over-rated. Then, the second innings comes, I do well and it’s all ‘he’s a great player.’ That’s cricket. Some days are good, some are bad. No one is going to be amazing all the time. Sometimes I feel it’s not a fair world – really and truly.”

The 25-year-old promising England pacer reflected on the week that showed him how tough attention could be. “If I sneeze too hard it’s going to be headlines.” Jofra Archer further added, “And I sense a lot of negativity. Whenever something cricket related is posted, the reaction tends to be: he’s over-rated. It gets huge reactions from people. I have played eight Test matches. How can someone be over-rated that has played just eight games?”

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