Anderson gets back into swing of things
Jimmy Anderson is test cricket’s greatest swing bowler of this generation but he is having to learn some new tricks in the coronavirus era
At 37 and in the twilight of his cricketing career, Jimmy Anderson isn’t too old to learn new tricks.
So, how is test cricket’s greatest swing bowler of this generation coping with the recent ban on spit-polishing a ball?
‘‘For me it’s a natural habit, to put saliva on the ball,’’ England’s all-time leading wicket-taker said.
‘‘So it’s been interesting to try and stop myself doing that.’’
Anderson has mastered the art of swing bowling, taking 584 wickets – more than any other paceman and behind only three spinners in Muttiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne and Anil Kumble on the test list – in a 17-year international career.
Licking his fingers and polishing the ball is Anderson’s typical method of generating the swing, but the ICC has temporarily banned the use of saliva because of the dangers of transmitting Covid-19 during a pandemic that is still killing hundreds of people daily in Britain.
It’s a move which has somewhat puzzled another swing king, Kiwi Tim Southee, who half-joked in an interview with the New Zealand Herald that the ICC was always doing things to ‘‘favour the batters’’.
‘‘OK, saliva is a carrier of the virus,’’ Southee said.
‘‘But if you watch a [rugby] scrum with 16 guys sweating, spitting, bleeding over each other, and we can’t shine a ball.’’
Anderson will have to find other ways to help get movement from the ball in the threetest series against thewest Indies, starting on July 8.
‘‘Fortunately in manchester we get quite a lot of rain, so I’ve been able to shine the ball on the grass and find some moisture that way,’’ he said in a video call.
‘‘We can use sweat, so that’s something, and enough to polish the ball for it to do something through the air. I don’t think it’s going to be a huge deal.’’
The extended break because of the pandemic has given Anderson more time to rest his ageing body after an injury-plagued past year that restricted him to only 74 overs of bowling since August.
A calf injury meant he bowled only four overs in the home Ashes series last year, then he hurt his ribs during the test series in South Africa in January.
Taking figures of 5-40 in the second test in Cape Town, just before the injury, was important to him.
‘‘If there were ever any doubts about retirement, it certainly told me I was able to keep going, that I am able to perform at the top-level,’’ he said.
Anderson also suggested there could be an act of solidarity between the England and West Indies players in support of the Black Lives Movement, which has been given fresh impetus through widespread protests following the death of George Floyd in the United States.
‘‘Absolutely I expect that to be a conversation we have,’’ Anderson said.
‘‘It’s been a very thought-provoking few weeks for everyone. It’s made me do a lot of thinking, and we will have conversations about what we can do as players to make a stand.’’
As part of Anderson’s introspection about racism in the world, he said he has wondered to himself, ‘‘Have I turned a blind eye to things?’’
‘‘I’d try to support my team-mates if they did suffer any sort of abuse,’’ he said, ‘‘but have I been active in supporting them on things like that?’’
He was shocked, for example, to see a statistic in an article on the Espn.cricinfo website, which said there was only one British-born, state-educated black man playing first-class cricket in England by the end of 2019.
‘‘That’s just not OK,’’ Anderson said. ‘‘So I think again, as a game, we need to actively make this game for everyone. It can’t keep going the way it is. It’s just not OK.
‘‘That’s the sort of thing I’ve been thinking about really. Is there more I can do as a player to help the situation?’’