‘No point paying even one rupee’: Sunil Gavaskar castigates Jofra Archer, questions what has he given MI in return
England and Mumbai Indians pacer Jofra Archer confronted flack from former India legendary cricketer Sunil Gavaskar for abandoning his employees in the midst of the IPL 2023.
According to Gavaskar, the franchise shouldn’t be paying him the complete amount at which he was bought on the IPL 2022 public sale.
“What has been Mumbai Indians’ experience of Jofra Archer? They took a punt on him, knowing that he was injured and would be available only from this season. They paid big money for him, and what has he given in return? He didn’t seem 100 per cent fit, and he should have informed the franchise about it,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Mid-Day.
“They only realised when he turned up and found that he could barely bowl at his usual pace. In between the tournament, he went abroad for treatment which is what his country’s cricket board apparently said. So he was never fully fit, but still came over. If he was committed to the franchise, who probably pay him more than the ECB does, he should have stayed right till the end even if he wasn’t going to play and show his commitment towards the franchise. Instead, he has opted to fly off back to the UK,” Gavaskar extra added.
Meanwhile, Archer carried out solely 5 video video games for Mumbai Indians and bagged solely two wickets with an monetary system cost of 9.50 and has been dominated out of the match due to a nagging elbow harm.
A variety of days prior to now, tales of Archer travelling once more to England to see a well being care supplier surfaced between IPL matches, whatever the fast bowler’s denial on Twitter. And now that Archer has formally returned dwelling to “focus on his rehabilitation” after being excluded from England’s Ashes squad for the five-Test sequence in opposition to Australia, Gavaskar expects MI to “not be fooled” and deposit the overall money given to him in his checking account.
“A day later, a story appears that he is going to get a multi-million-pound deal with Mumbai Indians to play for their team in the various leagues in the world. This has got to be the greatest diversionary trick attempted. Mumbai Indians are not fools to sign a lame horse for any future race. Make no mistake, Mumbai Indians won’t be amused at the turn of events. Now that they have come back well in the tournament without his presence, he will be lucky if he gets his full fee for the IPL, and if he does, then he would do well to give half to his favourite charity,” wrote Gavaskar.
Gavaskar extra talked about that regardless of a participant’s stature, no franchise should be paying even a single rupee if the signed participant is not going to be on the market on your full season.
“There’s simply no point paying even one rupee for a player, however big a name he may be if he is not going to be available for the entire tournament. It’s got to be the player’s choice to pick playing for an IPL franchise or his country. Full marks to him if he chooses country over IPL, but if he chooses IPL then he has to fulfil his commitments totally and not make some excuse and leave early, especially towards the time when qualifying for the Playoffs becomes crucial,” added Gavaskar.
The 73-year-old extra acknowledged that the franchises have been very forgiving with the players and that English players are these to have this downside.
