IPL cricketer Jofra Archer could represent England from 2019
Jofra Archer showed his talent while playing for Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League 2018. Now he could add more firepower to the talented England T20I squad from 2019, as the England and Wales Cricket Board has tweaked eligibility criteria for players. Notably, the Barbados born player has been playing for Sussex since 2015 and holds a British passport through his English father.
ECB makes several game-changing decisions
The ECB agreed to make several game-changing decisions during its board meeting at Lord's on Thursday. A new eligibility rule for representing England was also decided upon. In a press release, ECB announced all the key decisions made in the meeting. Besides changing the criteria for representing England, the ECB also laid rules for The Hundred, a new format conceptualised by the English board.
ECB makes a big change in eligibility criteria
Earlier, the eligibility rule for players to represent England was seven-year residence in England/Wales. Now it has been reduced to three years. The new criteria for players, both men and women, will come to effect from January 1, 2019.
These are the rules which players need to follow
The new criteria are: 1) A player should have a British Citizenship 2) Player should be either born in England/Wales, or have three-year residence (a total of 210 days/year April-March) 3) He should not have played as a local player in professional international or domestic cricket in a Full Member country in the last three years.
Archer could play for England next year
Archer will benefit from the new rule. He represented West Indies at Under-19 level, but the player has been with Sussex since 2015. This means he has served his quota of three years. According to ESPN, Archer could now be eligible to play for England next year. This is a big boost given there is the ICC World Cup and the Ashes.
Archer has impressive records across formats
Archer is yet to represent a nation at the highest level. The all-rounder has played 28 first-class matches and picked up an impressive 131 wickets. He has also scored 1,003 runs. Archer has 21 wickets from 14 List A matches. He is a celebrated T20 player and has 87 wickets from 66 matches. He debuted for RR in IPL 11, and took 15 wickets.
