If I do get back on the field I’m going to cherish every moment
ANDERSON SEES BIGGER PICTURE
JIMMY ANDERSON has conflicted emotions about the effect coronavirus has had and will continue to have on cricket.
With people fighting for their lives, England’s leading wicket taker says the possible loss of the Test summer amounts to little.
On the other hand, not bowling a single ball this summer is a feeling that fills him with dread.
One thing Anderson is sure about is that, when he next stands at the top of his mark ready to bowl for England, it will mean so much more.
And if he has to wait until next winter, then so be it.
Anderson, 37, said: “I have been thinking how it will change or manifest itself from the perspective side of things. For me, if I do get back out on the field I’m going to enjoy that so much more.
“What people are sacrificing in the NHS and the fact that sadly people are losing their lives to this virus shows there are much more important things in the world than sport.
“But the fact that I’ve been able to do this for a long time and I get to play a sport as a job means that, when I do get to do it again, I’m really going to cherish it and enjoy every single moment of it.”
Anderson has recovered from the broken rib he suffered during the Tour of South Africa, which cut short his winter. He says he was fit and willing to go to Sri Lanka but reluctantly accommodated the selectors’ desire to mothball him.
The intervention of coronavirus has scuppered those plans. And now, with restrictive measures in place, he is having to rely on bowling in his living room, online workouts with team-mates on his bike and playing netball in the garden with his two daughters.
Quality time with his family it may be, but it is no preparation for international cricket.
Anderson said: “I’m doing everything but bowling. I’m doing gym work specific to bowling, making sure the side’s sorted.
“I’m just trying to do the strength work so that when we do
come to bowl again it doesn’t put that much strain on the body.
“I’ve not got the space to do it really but at a push I could bowl against a wall maybe to keep the body used to the movements of it.
“All the lads are messaging each other, trying to stick together and help each other out where we can, and a few of us are training together virtually.”
Anderson did a competitive online Peloton cycling workout with Stuart Broad and Mark Wood, which Broad won narrowly. For the time being it is the closest England’s most successful seam bowling duo will get to acting in tandem.
England fans will keep their fingers crossed that they will see them in action again soon.