'I hope no one else has to deal with this stuff' - Jofra Archer slams racist reaction from an Indian fan

England pace sensation Jofra Archer on Monday slammed a racist comment on social media after he posted a screenshot of an alleged racist message he had received. The 24-year-old bowler, who had a breakthrough year in 2019 as he played a pivotal role in securing England team its first World Cup, took to Instagram and lambasted a person who had commented in a derogatory way on one of his posts.

The speedster Archer wrote, “I given a lot of thought about reacting to this and I hope that no one else has to deal with stuff like this on a regular basis, it isn’t ever acceptable and should be addressed properly in my opinion. I will never understand how people feel so freely to say these things to another human being, it baffles me.”

This is not the first instance for the Barbados-born cricketer as last November he was subjected to racial abuse during a Test series in New Zealand. At that point, he had tweeted, “A bit disturbing hearing racial insults today while battling to help save my team. The crowd has been amazing this week except for that one guy.”

Archer represents Rajashtan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and for the last two seasons, he has become one of the key players for the franchise. His gentle run-up to the crease and the deceptive pace and bounce he generates from a simple action has become an important topic of discussion for the opposition sides.

In the 2019 IPL season, Archer picked up 11 wickets in 11 games and his economy of 6.76 gave credibility to why he was one of the hardest to score against. But even as the 2020 IPL season is under a cloud due to the spread of COVID-19 around the world, Archer has been ruled out of the tournament due to the stress fracture he sustained in his elbow during England’s tour to South Africa at the start of the year. He is currently recovering and hoping to make it big in the upcoming county season.