I have an admission to make. I haven’t been able to watch as much cricket as I usually would this summer. I’m as busy as hell at work whilst trying to juggle two young kids, a garage conversion, and some cricket blog you might have heard of.
However, I have been lucky enough to watch a lot of Jimmy Anderson. Why? Because I go out of my way to see him. Watching him bowl for England has been part of my life for seventeen whole years. I don’t like the idea that he’ll soon be retired. I’m savouring him while I can – like the last drop of an expensive wine you’ve saved for a special occasion.
So what have I made of Jimmy’s performances? I can’t lie. He’s not quite the Jimmy of old. But he’s been pretty bloody close. He still makes the ball talk, his fielding is still remarkably athletic, and his pace hasn’t diminished much. Today he clocked 87mph a couple of times. I’m not convinced the speed gun’s 100% accurate but he still seems to have some snap in his action – at least as much as he’s had since he reached his mid-thirties.
This is why I get depressed at all the “Jimmy is finally showing his age” comments. He’s 38 years old FFS. Of course he’s not quite the prize stallion he once was. But he’s still ahead of the field in so many departments: accuracy, wherewithal, determination, and occasional grumpiness. I’ve grown to love the latter.
As soon as Jimmy has an off day, the media over-analyse his performance to death. It’s always “he looked old today” and “he’s finally losing it” rather than simply “he wasn’t quite at this best on this particular occasion”. I believe some are putting the twenty-something Jimmy on a pedestal as if he was perfect. But he wasn’t. No bowler is. He still had off days even then. Not even McGrath and Ambrose turned up and took five-fers every time they played a Test match.
So my message to the cricketing world today is “give the bloke a break”. He’s one of the best swing bowlers our country has ever produced. He may well be the best. So stop analysing the appearance of every new grey hair. Just enjoy him. He’s still good.
I’m sure that Root and Silverwood would soon put Jimmy out to pasture if he wasn’t up to it. The England team isn’t a charity. If he was washed up, like a footballer who can’t run anymore, then he wouldn’t be in the squad.
He’s not an Ed Smith investment either. He’s not there because the selectors have staked their reputations on him and they’re desperate to see him succeed. Anderson has survived plenty of regimes and England aren’t exactly short of alternative seam bowling options at the moment. I bet he’s testing the batsmen’s techniques in practice.
That’s why Jimmy’s three wickets today gave me immense pleasure. He wasn’t always perfect – England were generally poor for a spell with the second new ball – but he’s still the king of the swingers in overcast conditions. And he’s a big reason why Pakistan are struggling somewhat on 223-9.
If this does prove to be Anderson’s last summer – and I hope it’s not because he deserves to hang up his boots in front of a packed house like Alastair Cook – then he’ll be going out at the very top. His career hasn’t nosedived, and his quest to reach 600 Test wickets feels very different from Sachin Tendulkar’s quest for 100 hundreds (which became something of a circus).
The great Sachin’s final days as an international cricketer seemed like a farewell tour. He was being picked on sentiment and hope rather than expectation. Jimmy definitely isn’t there yet. And if England didn’t have so many good seam bowlers at the moment, I’d be backing him to reach 650 wickets let alone 600. After all, he an absolute freak.
Most bowlers struggle to get the ball down to the other end at the age of 38. But Jimmy’s body somehow finds a way to keep going: an out-swinger here, an in-ducker there, one ball slightly wide of the crease, the next delivered close to the stumps. The man can still bowl. And he’s been testing top Test batsmen from delivery number 1 to delivery number 33,331.
James Morgan
Tend to agree James, but I still don’t think Anderson and Broad should always play together. However good Jimmy still is he’s going to go sooner rather than later, he’ll almost be pushing 40 next Ashes. And like it or not others will have to take up the mantle. What I do not want to see is a great bowler fade away because he goes on too long, one injury could put him out. Gooch realised this and retired in the middle of a season, he said it “had gone”, so did Ramprakash. Botham went on too long with a knackered body, all great players.
Great article James. Anderson is a national treasure and deserves massive respect.
Jimmy’s bowling quick, so the speed gun must be broken!? Oh yea of little faith…
I don’t think most of the people on this blog think Anderson is past it but because at present he is not allowed to work on the ball the way he likes to exact the sort of swing we are used to from him he is not the threat we are used to. Some time in the not too distant future an effective opener is going to have to be found for Broad and Woakes to work with. Not too sure what’s happened with Archer this match. He certainly did get much work in the last test, so I can’t believe he’s tired. At present, despite his on-off performances I still think Archer is a greater match winning threat than Anderson.
Marc
The consensus seems to be that since his injury Archer can’t bowl as consistently fast as he used to. If that’s the case, he’s going to have to change his game (and learn from the likes of Jimmy) and Root is certainly going to have to change how he uses him. WhereasRoot used to over bowl him to the point of exhaustion, he now, surely, will have to bowl him in shorter spells and first change rather than opener. He is clearly still capable of bowling that very quick delivery which lifts sharply off a length but, physically, can’t do it very often. Whether he has the cricketing brain to adapt his game in the way that Lillee and Walsh, for example, did once their blistering pace had gone remains to be seen, but as things stand he will not be the threat on Australian wickets that we hoped he would.
John–Where is this consensus? I’m reading quite a few different sources on the test series and I can hardly recall it being said at all, let alone there being a consensus about it.
There seems to be an opinion, not least in the England camp, that he’s feeling his way back after quite a serious injury–but that’s not the same as “he’ll never be the same again”.
It also seems to mischaracterise Archer’s bowling somewhat. He’s not quite the same as Wood (bowl super-fast all the time), and even last summer he wasn’t bowling like that –when he felt the conditions dictated it, he was relying on variation as much as outright pace.
I’m not watching the series as I’ve no desire to watch teams that are shadows of their former selves being offered up as ritual sacrificies so can’t comment on the article. England can keep a 38 year old seamer playing while Pakistan can’t stop a 28 year old retiring. It may say something about the characters of the two men involved – but we’ll never know with one able to command ten times the pay of the other.
I did want to write something on a bit of TV I stumbled on last night. The programme (not sure what it was – probably BBC1) was mocking David Steele winning SPOTY in 1975. The smug tosser presenting said Steele didn’t make a century and didn’t win a game – then his demeanour in accepting the award was taken as proof that he knew he wasn’t a deserving winner of the award.
Whether this was ignorance or malice I don’t know. Anyone with any contextual knowledge of that summer knows why Steele won. England had lost six consecutive Tests to an all-time great fast bowling duo of Lillee and Thomson. Most of those defeats had been by humiliating margins and some of the England batsmen seemed afraid (especially captain Denness). Steele played a leading role in halting that run of defeats, made a lowest score of 45 and only just missed a first century (which he would achieve in his first Test of the following summer). Steele hooked Lillee and Thomson with no fear (indeed, his fondness for the hook shot would ultimately be his downfall).
This piece of garbage shows how the media can twist almost anything to fit their agendas. What could have been charming modesty becomes instead proof of inadequacy. I’m giving my last TV to charity so I won’t have to give any more money to the scum who produced this. I wonder if England’s heroes of today will be so ridiculed in a few decades?
I think gratefully this series is finished. The same “tosser” did a piece on the Ashes in similar vein that I happened to see, mainly because there has been nothing decent on TV since about April. I’m not sure if it was meant to be a piss take or what, but it was in very bad taste and typical of the majority of today’s “presenters” or comedians who think they are clever or funny but in fact are just stupid prats.
Simon H — With so little cricket this summer, if you can’t watch this series I feel for you !
All teams go through periods of rebuilding and you are doing an injustice to the current players who are (probably) the
best available. They need our support !
As someone who saw Ray Lindwall destroy a good Gloucestershire side, I have loved watching James Anderson provide
speed and accuracy for the England team.
ECB plans to restructure domestic season leaked to Tim Wigmore.
NUmber of f/c matches to be slashed by a third and county players to see drastic reductions in their contracts. That Whatmore sure came up with these quickly, like barely after getting his feet under the table. One might almost think these were pre-prepared but they knew Graves is too toxic to have these come out under him.
Australia’s nasty Test players stood foresquare behind their f/c colleagues when CA tried to slash their pay. Will England’s nice Test players do the same?
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