Anderson’s left ‘grumpy’ over snub for England Test
Chapple’s tough call on ‘right decision’ to let Has leave club
JIMMY Anderson is showing a fair bit of ‘grumpiness’ after not being selected for England’s Test squad for the tour of Sri Lanka.
After a winter of recovering from first a calf injury which forced him out of all but the first morning of the Ashes, and then a cracked rib, which saw him come home early from South Africa, the Lancashire seamer is fit and ready.
But England decided not to take him to Sri Lanka. Instead, he will start the new season with Lancashire, which is a huge boost for head coach Glen Chapple.
His omission, however, has left England’s leading Test wicket-taker a little frustrated.
“He looks grumpy,” said Chapple. “It has been a long year in what you think he has missed out on. He has played a lot of cricket, although it has mainly been for us. He had a tough back end of the summer last year, he trained hard to be ready for South Africa – I was on a trip with him in December and the level he was training at was unbelievable really, and he had been doing that for months.
“To then crack a rib in his second Test, and spend another chunk of time out because Sri Lanka doesn’t suit what they want form him and the team must be pretty frustrating.
“The level of grumpiness in the indoor centre is pretty understandable.”
Anderson is set to play the bulk of Lancashire’s opening six County Championship matches as he proves his body can still survive five days of Test cricket.
“You have to prove as a player to play five-day cricket your durability,” said Chapple. “There is always a risk to that because you have to push your body.
“To me, Jimmy showed last year he is very durable, but the injury just happened at the wrong time.
“I can’t think of any of our bowlers who didn’t do something to their body, but it is just magnified when it is an international player getting injured at the wrong time.
“The amount of cricket he played for us, he showed he is still capable of playing at the highest level.”
GLEN Chapple admits it was tough to see Haseeb Hameed leave Lancashire, but believes the time was right.
The former England opener was released at the end of his contract last summer after struggling to rediscover the form that saw him catapulted into the Test side.
Still only 23, the former Bolton School pupil has joined former coach Peter Moores at Nottinghamshire for the new season.
“It was tough, absolutely,” said Chapple over the decision.
“I think he is an excellent player and he started last season off very well. He found more struggles later on.
“It wasn’t necessarily my area, but it was felt it was time to let him go.
“Professional sport is not that easy. You can be the best thing one minute, but then people catch up, you don’t get the rub of the green, things happen. Sometimes there is more pressure on certain people than others.
“So when you do build up that reputation early on, it brings with it more challenges.
“I wish him all the best and that he has a successful career. But we have someone like Josh Bohannon who is the same age as Has, he came as probably the fourth member of his age group side in terms of where he was at 14, 15, 16 and now he is right at the forefront of our first team. “You are still developing up to mid to late 20s, even later with certain players.”