Barbados-born all-rounder Jofra Archer will be eligible to play for England at next year’s Cricket World Cup following a rule change announced on Thursday.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said overseas players would, from Jan. 1, become eligible to play for England after living in the country for three years rather than a previous seven.
Archer would not have been able to play for England until 2022 under the existing rules.
The 23-year-old Sussex player, who has a British father and passport, featured for West Indies at under-19 level and arrived in Britain in 2015.
The Rajasthan Royals paid 72 million Indian rupees ($1.03 million) for him after a fierce bidding war in last January’s Indian Premier League Twenty20 auction.
Archer could also be available for England’s Caribbean tour that runs from January to March, and includes matches in Barbados, although other T20 contractual obligations may make that difficult.
“It may or may not happen but I would love to debut in front of my family,” he said on Twitter on Thursday.
The ECB said the change brought the body closer to the International Cricket Council (ICC) rules.
England tour the West Indies next year, with three Tests from 23 January-13 February followed by five one-day internationals from 20 February-2 March and three Twenty20 internationals between 5-10 March.
Three of those matches are in Barbados, and Archer wrote on Twitter: “It may or may not happen but I would love to debut in front of my family.”
But on Thursday, Sussex said Archer is likely to qualify “at some point in March 2019.”
The county explained in a statement that the exact date of his qualification would depend on the time he spends out of the UK during the rest of 2018-19.
Were Archer to miss the West Indies tour, there would only be six England one-day internationals – one in Ireland and five against Pakistan – before the World Cup begins in May.
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