Jofra Archer lifts lid on controversial Ashes moment

English fast bowler Jofra Archer has finally revealed why he was seen chuckling in the moments after he felled Steve Smith with a bouncer in the second test Ashes.

Archer was criticised by some in the cricketing fraternity after cameras caught him laughing while Smith lay on the ground being treated by doctors.

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Though he recovered from the blow and resumed his innings, he was later diagnosed with a concussion and missed the third Test entirely.

Exactly why Archer had been smiling during such an otherwise tense moment had been a mystery until now, when former England captain Nasser Hussain asked the bowler about it in an interview for the Daily Mail.

Archer said he and Jos Buttler had been joking around after he’d claimed the wicket of Australian captain Tim Paine a short time earlier.

“Not long before I hit Smith, I’d got the wicket of Tim Paine,” Archer told Hussain.

“Before he came in, Jos said ‘If you get Paine out, you can have anything you want’.

“So I told him my car was dirty.

“He said: ‘I’ll hire a bucket and a chamois and wash the car myself’.”

It was only when the English team were huddled together while Smith was receiving medical attention that he remembered the earlier conversation with Buttler, Archer said.

He went on to say there was ‘no reason to laugh at Steve’, but that he understood how it look at the time.

“I did see how it looked, but that’s why I am a bit frustrated, because seeing it on TV doesn’t show the full side,” Archer said.

Cricket 'burnout' linked to mental health issues

Victoria captain Peter Handscomb believes cricket's gruelling schedule is contributing to player burnout.

Handscomb, who has praised Glenn Maxwell and Nic Maddinson for talking about their struggles with mental health, says the amount of cricket being played can cause stress on players.

"It can be tough," Handscomb told RSN.

"With cricket being a 12-month-a-year game now, you can see a bit of burnout starting to come in to players.

"It is hard to stay up for such long periods of time. The stress comes in.

"Credit to both Maxy and Maddo that they've had the strength to step up and talk about it, and say they weren't right, and go and get the help that's required.