Jofra Archer's abuser banned for two years from international venues in New Zealand

The New Zealand fan who racially abused England star Jofra Archer during the first Test at the Bay Oval in November has been slapped with a harsh punishment. New Zealand Cricket (NZC), on Tuesday, confirmed that the fan has been banned from attending international and domestic fixtures for two years.

On the final day of the Test at Bay Oval, Jofra Archer faced racial abuse as he was making his way to the dressing room. The England World Cup-winner told the security personnel about the incident before revealing about it on Twitter. Archer confirmed that while the players received good support from the crowd, one of the fans did hurl racial insults at him.

“A bit disturbing hearing racial insults today whilst battling to help save my team, the crowd was been amazing this week except for that one guy, @TheBarmyArmy was good as usual also,” wrote Archer on Twitter soon after the match.

A bit disturbing hearing racial insults today whilst battling to help save my team , the crowd was been amazing this week except for that one guy , @TheBarmyArmy was good as usual also

— Jofra Archer (@JofraArcher) November 25, 2019

In a previous tweet which was deleted, Archer further described the nature of the abuse, writing: “Can the guy that was yelling bbc and bc from the scoreboard area today come forward and tell me what those words mean please? Because I don’t…”

New Zealand Cricket reacts to Jofra Archer’s racial abuse

As soon as the Jofra Archer revealed the incident, NZC decided to take action. The cricket board referred the incident to the police after failing “to conclusively identify the person responsible”. A statement released by the board on Monday evening confirmed a 28-year-old man from Auckland had admitted to being responsible and was issued with a verbal warning.

NZC spokesman Anthony Crummy issued another apology to England and Archer for the incident while calling it unacceptable. He also added that if the man breached the conditions of his ban and attended a fixture he would be removed from the venue and become subject to police action.

“We’d again like to extend our apologies to Jofra and the England team management for such an unsavoury incident and reiterate once more that this type of behaviour is completely unacceptable,” the statement read as reported by The Guardian.

“We want to thank the NZ Police for their efforts in identifying the person responsible, and for making it clear that this type of behaviour will not be minimised.”

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