The grim news about Jofra Archer last week made me think wistfully of those years between 2016 and 2018 when he burst on to the scene at Sussex and gave so much pleasure to so many people with his brilliant fast bowling.
Sussex fans have come to accept – since he made such a spectacular introduction to international cricket in 2019 helping England win the World Cup before electrifying the Ashes series – that he would make very limited appearances for the county again.
But when he stepped up his comeback after elbow surgery at Hove in the early weeks of this season, Sussex were optimistic that he would play in the Blast as part of his rehab.
Now, and having not played competitively since last July, it’s unlikely Archer will play again this year as he begins the long recovery after having a stress fracture diagnosed in his lower back.
It’s an injury which afflicts many fast bowlers and occurs when the density of the spinal bone can’t handle the strain placed on it by fast bowling.
Archer joins a long list of fast bowlers who have suffered from back issues. The good news is that it certainly need not be career-threatening.
Jimmy Anderson suffered a stress fracture in 2006, remodelled his action, and 16 years on he’ll be taking the new ball for England in the Lord’s Test next week.
Sussex supporters regard Archer as one of their own but right now I sense most of them would happily accept not seeing him play for the county again if it meant he could still perform at a high level in the future.
Having only turned 27 last month, Archer should still have seven or eight good years in the game if he can avoid serious injury. Anderson’s longevity is proof enough of that.
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Not so long ago the ECB cherished the T20 Blast to the extent that they even helped county’s local marketing costs for the competition with some money from a central pot.
Most of the ECB’s marketing spend is now concentrated on The Hundred and evidence that this season’s Blast gets under way this week would be hard to find for the casual cricket fan around Brighton and Hove.
Gone are the days of local TV advertising or even a presence on bus shelter ad boards. You might need to be either a follower of Sussex’s social media channels or a Blast ticket holder already to know that the Sharks play two games at Hove this week, against Glamorgan tomorrow (Thursday 26 May) and Kent next Sunday.
This is only anecdotal evidence, of course, but people I speak to associate the Blast at Hove with warm Friday nights in June and July, Luke Wright peppering the neighbouring flats and 6,000 fans shoehorned into the stands having a good time.
For many, with the domestic football season barely over, cricket isn’t in their consciousness yet.
Glamorgan has traditionally been a hard sell for Sussex at Hove and Thursday nights are not nearly as popular as Fridays – or Sunday afternoons.
So it will be interesting to see what sort of crowd there is for the opening game and whether the ECB have dropped another clanger in starting the Blast before most casual fans have even begun thinking about watching cricket.
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Rob Andrew came off a longer run than any of the Sussex bowlers last Friday when he criticised the umpires’ decision to abandon the first day’s play in the tour match against New Zealand at 2pm.
The rain had long since stopped, the sun was out and, although the sea end of the outfield was pretty wet, there was every chance that within two to three hours it would have been fit to play.
Sussex’s chief executive pithily said that cricket “had shot itself in the foot again” with its treatment of spectators, some 2,000 of whom had been expected to watch.
To make his point, Andrew was still inspecting the affected parts of the outfield three hours after play had been abandoned.
At least Sussex took the game seriously in terms of their team selection. Apart from their overseas players, Cheteshwar Pujara and Mohammad Rizwan, it was pretty much a full-strength side that took on the world champions.
It’s a moot point though whether charging an adult £35 for what was not classed as a first-class fixture represented good value for money.
New Zealand may be world Test champions but most of their big names, including skipper Kane Williamson, were still at the IPL.
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Back to the Blast. The departures of Chris Jordan, Phil Salt and David Wiese have clearly weakened the side which reached the semi-finals last year – and Luke Wright has stepped down as captain with Ravi Bopara taking over.
But Mohammad Rizwan and Rashid Khan are both in the top five in the ICC world rankings for batting and bowling while the experienced New Zealand keeper-batter Tim Seifert will be a useful addition during the middle weeks of the competition.
Rizwan, who made 60 opening in a 2nd XI win over Hampshire last week, will open with Wright, and interestingly all-rounder Harrison Ward, a left-hander who bowls off spin, featured at the Ageas Bowl and in a win over Surrey earlier in the week.
Let’s not forget that last year Sussex reached the knockout stages despite losing four games at home to the weather.
There is some hard-baked resilience in the squad and James Kirtley is proving to be a shrewd coach. A place in the quarter-finals will be Kirtley’s minimum expectation again this year.
Follow Bruce Talbot on Twitter @brucetalbot1.
