Like everybody else, cricket writers are allowed to have heroes too. Over the years there has been something both heroic and minimalist about Jimmy Anderson that I have found fascinating. Skill in a person who finished with 704 Test wickets, more than any other fast bowler, is a given. The aggression often appeared put on, and in fact was honed through sessions with a psychologist.

There have been few sights more rewarding than watching Anderson bowl. He lacked the ferocity of the great West Indies fast bowlers. Nor did he have the metronomic efficiency of Glenn McGrath where evenness meant everything.

Anderson had grace and elegance, and remarkable control over swing, effective even in Indian conditions. He said he learnt reverse swing from Zaheer Khan, and once admitted when commentators praised his wobble swing bowling that he was unsure which way the ball would go. Top sportsmen don’t make such confessions. It was refreshing.

Dual role

And now here he comes, all of 43 next year, to prove that he still has it in him despite not playing T20 cricket for over a decade. Mahendra Singh Dhoni is a year older, so Anderson will not be the oldest in the IPL. Whichever franchise chooses him will know he plays a dual role, as performer and inspiration.

Anderson could be the most significant IPL signing since Shane Warne was picked by Rajasthan Royals to play, lead, and mentor and had such a profound impact on the team, on the players, perhaps on the format itself. Warne was 39 in that inaugural season Rajasthan Royals won, and had retired from international cricket two years earlier.

Sharing a dressing room and even competition time with someone like Anderson means that certain skills and attitudes will be absorbed by those around him if not consciously then through a process of cricketing osmosis.

Obsessed

After over two decades of international cricket, some more cricket may not be what the doctor ordered. But you cannot but admire a man so obsessed with the sport that he will play on and on. When he is done with professional cricket, he will continue to play for his club Burnley, and when that chapter ends, he will play pick-up games in the park and bowl to his grandchildren in his garden, maybe even give his great grand children throwdowns in the dining room at home.

I have known only one international cricketer like that — Shivnarine Chanderpaul of the West Indies. I met him in the US where he was on vacation, playing cricket! “So you play cricket professionally, and then when you want a break, you play some more cricket?” I asked him. “Yes,” he answered simply.

Anderson’s first autobiography was titled: Bowl. Sleep. Repeat. Someone made the point that since Anderson probably bowls in his sleep too, that title had one word too many.

In his recent book Finding the Edge, Anderson describes how he walked into a Manchester hotel to meet the trio of captain, coach and England cricket supremo: “As I walk towards them, it hits me cold. This isn’t a team appraisal, is it? With each footstep towards the far side of the bar, each of their distinct silhouettes coming into view, the tram journey just gone is suddenly like a blissful past life, the outdoor sun sucked into a horizonless neon-red darkness.”

He says later: “My brain is doing the maths and my heart is sinking as I go to shake their hands. I feel like Joe Pesci in Goodfellas, ushered into a room under the impression that I’m going to get made, only to be shot. You f——. They’re going to tell me something I don’t want to be told, aren’t they? Something I’ve been swerving, darting, shapeshifting, bowling through for my whole life.”

That gives us a clue to Anderson’s motives. This smoothest of fast bowlers who seems to run up, bowl, bend, field tell the batter off, walk back and start again, all in one motion is merely playing himself. He is told to retire, does so, writes a book, and prepares to play a format he has shunned, all in one motion.

As Joe Pesci said in With Honors, “A winner forgets he’s in a race, he just loves to run.”

When coach Brendon McCullum flew over from New Zealand to tell Jimmy Anderson, England’s most successful Test bowler that his time was up, it was a tribute to both parties. That Anderson had the intensity to keep going and needed a tap on the shoulder spoke for his competitive spirit.

That McCullum flew nearly 18,000 kilometres to speak to the player told us of the kind of coach he is and suggested one of the reasons for England’s success under the great communicator.

Contrast this with how the Indian administration has sometimes handled such issues. When the team was returning from the 1979 tour of England, the pilot on the flight announced that skipper Venkatraghavan had just been sacked. This was the first Venkatraghavan was hearing of it.

Fantastic figures

Anderson, who will be 42 in July, is likely to play his 188th and final Test against West Indies at Lord’s the same month. Only Sachin Tendulkar (200) has played more. And only Mutthiah Muralitharan (800) and Shane Warne (708) have taken more wickets than Anderson’s 700. That he claimed 220 of them after the age of 35 and at a better average is indication that he got better with age. That, of course didn’t mean he would realise his full potential at 50!

For some years after his debut, Anderson carried two burdens. One, that he was effective only in home conditions where the ball swung, and two, that while he was capable of the magic ball any time, he seemed more enamoured by the dot ball. Yet, when England won a series in India after 28 years in 2012-13, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said the difference between the teams was Jimmy Anderson.

Anderson said he had learnt the art of the reverse swing from Zaheer Khan, and in an interview once admitted that his famous wobble ball was a bit of a lottery since it was impossible to control. Few players have spoken with such honesty about their craft.

Yet, for all its dignity and humanism, it seemed incongruous that it needed a coach’s nudge before that obvious decision was made. Perhaps Anderson himself was relieved it had been taken out of his hands. Most sportsmen have an instinct for recognising when the time comes. But great ones sometimes don’t, because they have often come out of slumps in the past and think they can again.

Anderson’s five wickets in four matches in the Ashes series at 85.4 was a hint he refused to acknowledge. He struggled in India (except for a magical spell in Visakhapatnam), but kept repeating a variation of “I am as fit as I have been; I am at my best now”, statements he had made in the past.

Yet, even if he got his timing slightly wrong, it didn’t detract from his stature as one of the greats of the game. It would have to be between him and Glenn McGrath for the title of the finest bowler of their type in modern times.

McGrath hit his groove early, and finished with nearly the same average bowling at home or away. Yet it was Anderson who might win the argument as a player who asked more questions more consistently of batters who were conscious of the fact that the near-unplayable ball was just around the corner — and he could bend it as few could.

Reinventing

Anderson played for longer and reinvented himself periodically, cutting pace for accuracy and bowling with a grace and seeming lack of effort which is one of the game’s great sights. He was experimenting with a new run-up at 41. “His ability to keep wanting to improve has been extraordinary,” wrote his former captain and friend Alastair Cook.

Anderson has played 70% of all the Tests England have since his debut. That, for a fast bowler is an incredible record, testimony to his skill, fitness, hunger, success, consistency and ability to improve.

Should players be allowed the time and place for the final goodbye? It can be a tribute to long years of service (Anderson made his debut in 2003) as well as a profitable marketing ploy. Anderson’s time had come. He was allowed to choose the place. It is a happy compromise.

File picture of England bowler James Anderson celebrating a wicket at Lord’s Cricket Ground
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

When coach Brendon McCullum flew over from New Zealand to tell Jimmy Anderson, England’s most successful Test bowler, that his time was up, it was a tribute to both parties. That Anderson had the intensity to keep going and needed a tap on the shoulder spoke for his competitive spirit.

That McCullum flew nearly 18,000 kilometres to speak to the player told us of the kind of coach he is and suggested one of the reasons for England’s success under the great communicator.

ALSO READ | Will leave a huge hole: Stuart Broad on England’s bowling attack after James Anderson’s retirement

Contrast this with how the Indian administration has sometimes handled such issues. When the team was returning from the 1979 tour of England, the pilot on the flight announced that skipper Venkatraghavan had just been sacked. This was the first Venkatraghavan was hearing of it.

Fantastic figures

Anderson, who will be 42 in July, is likely to play his 188th and final Test against West Indies at Lord’s the same month. Only Sachin Tendulkar (200) has played more. And only Mutthiah Muralitharan (800) and Shane Warne (708) have taken more wickets than Anderson’s 700. That he claimed 220 of them after the age of 35 and at a better average is indication that he got better with age. That, of course didn’t mean he would realise his full potential at 50!

For some years after his debut, Anderson carried two burdens. One, that he was effective only in home conditions where the ball swung, and two, that while he was capable of the magic ball any time, he seemed more enamoured by the dot ball. Yet, when England won a series in India after 28 years in 2012-13, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said the difference between the teams was Jimmy Anderson.

Anderson said he had learnt the art of the reverse swing from Zaheer Khan, and in an interview once admitted that his famous wobble ball was a bit of a lottery since it was impossible to control. Few players have spoken with such honesty about their craft.

Yet, for all its dignity and humanism, it seemed incongruous that it needed a coach’s nudge before that obvious decision was made. Perhaps Anderson himself was relieved it had been taken out of his hands. Most sportsmen have an instinct for recognising when the time comes. But great ones sometimes don’t, because they have often come out of slumps in the past and think they can again.

Anderson’s five wickets in four matches in the Ashes series at 85.4 was a hint he refused to acknowledge. He struggled in India (except for a magical spell in Visakhapatnam), but kept repeating a variation of “I am as fit as I have been; I am at my best now”, statements he had made in the past.

Yet, even if he got his timing slightly wrong, it didn’t detract from his stature as one of the greats of the game. It would have to be between him and Glenn McGrath for the title of the finest bowler of their type in modern times.

McGrath hit his groove early, and finished with nearly the same average bowling at home or away. Yet it was Anderson who might win the argument as a player who asked more questions more consistently of batters who were conscious of the fact that the near-unplayable ball was just around the corner — and he could bend it as few could.

Reinventing

Anderson played for longer and reinvented himself periodically, cutting pace for accuracy and bowling with a grace and seeming lack of effort which is one of the game’s great sights. He was experimenting with a new run-up at 41. “His ability to keep wanting to improve has been extraordinary,” wrote his former captain and friend Alastair Cook.

Anderson has played 70% of all the Tests England have since his debut. That, for a fast bowler is an incredible record, testimony to his skill, fitness, hunger, success, consistency and ability to improve.

Should players be allowed the time and place for the final goodbye? It can be a tribute to long years of service (Anderson made his debut in 2003) as well as a profitable marketing ploy. Anderson’s time had come. He was allowed to choose the place. It is a happy compromise.

File picture of England fast bowler James Anderson, who announced his retirement from Test cricket
| Photo Credit: PTI

Legendary James Anderson is set for his final appearance in Test cricket as the upcoming home season for England will be the last for cricket’s most successful fast bowler, a report in U.K. media said.

Having become the first fast bowler ever to take 700 wickets in Test cricket during England’s tour of India earlier this year, legendary Australian spinner Shane Warne’s tally of 708 wickets in the format could be on Anderson’s target as he takes the field for one final run with the England team.

ALSO READ | Anderson’s success, and how the physics of swing bowling played to it

According to The Guardian, Anderson has been told by England’s Test team coach Brendon McCullum that they are looking at the future, with an eye on the Ashes 2025-26 in Australia, which means that end of the road is near for the 41-year-old.

England are set to play Tests against West Indies and Sri Lanka at home this year and one of those fixtures is at Old Trafford — Anderson’s home ground — and that game could be the last for the right-arm bowler.

The report said that McCullum flew especially from New Zealand to the U.K. to inform Anderson about his future over a round of golf.

Anderson, who has played 187 Tests for England in a storied career which began in May 2003 along with 194 ODIs and 19 T20Is, sits third in the list of all-time highest wicket-takers in Test cricket with 700 wickets, behind Warne (708) and Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan (800).