Broad’s 500 milestone could be the last of its kind
Hlure of T20 and fewer Tests may put landmark out of reach hbowler has hunger to close gap after Anderson retirement
Stuart Broad will have only Old Trafford’s blank seats and Emirates branding to salute if he takes his 500th Test wicket today, but it will still be a moment of huge personal achievement and one for English cricket to cherish for the ages.
Broad will become only the fourth seam bowler to reach the landmark, and given he has taken 14 wickets in this series in two games at a rate of one every 23 balls to get to 499, we will probably not have long to wait once the match resumes after a day lost to rain. Especially after his former captain Sir Andrew Strauss said Broad had not bowled “much better than this.”
We could also see one of those coincidences that cricket throws up, for Kraigg Brathwaite resumes this morning on two and he was James Anderson’s 500th Test wicket on the previous West Indies tour to England three years ago.
The odds of a fifth seamer joining Courtney Walsh, Glenn Mcgrath, Anderson and Broad becomes more distant with the launch of every new Twenty20 league. More money can be earned and quicker in franchise cricket.
Broad and Anderson are the last still playing to have started out before the Indian Premier League. It was central contracts and Test cricket for England that would make them wealthy.
They were then too established in the England team to be tempted by white-ball deals when the IPL started to throw around milliondollar salaries.
You cannot bowl at 90mph like Jofra Archer and Mark Wood and last as long as Broad. Australia have some gifted quick bowlers, but their workloads are micromanaged and all are muscled giants without the slight, lithe frames of Broad and Anderson that are less prone to breaking down.
India, too, have a fine generation of fast bowlers, but the IPL is their board’s priority and Asian pitches and Kookaburra balls make the challenge very hard. West Indies, South Africa and New Zealand do not play enough Test cricket.
Another young Broad could be lurking in colts cricket somewhere, but it is unlikely the same volume of Test cricket will still be played by the time he emerges.
Broad is also the last of a generation willing to let white-ball cricket go in favour of focusing on Tests. Broad never formally retired from one-day cricket, but has played only three one-day internationals since the 2015 World Cup. That suited both sides; England wanted to move on and it allowed Broad and Anderson to concentrate on one format. With England Test contracts so lucrative, both players were happy.
It has worked: Broad has taken 227 wickets in 64 Tests since the 2015 World Cup at three runs lower than his overall career average; Anderson over the same period has 199 in 52 matches at 21.90.
Fred Trueman’s “whoever does it will be b----- tired” grump when asked if anyone would emulate his 300th Test wicket was a reflection of life in 1964 for a fast bowler. Trueman bowled 99,701 balls in firstclass cricket, more than Anderson and Broad combined (92,695).
Even more recently, only a quarter of Darren Gough’s balls (44,203) in first-class cricket were bowled in Test matches. For Broad, 66 per cent have been bowled for England.
Instead of being worn down, it has given him the energy to recover from dips. He was poor on the 2012 tour of India and went 26 Tests without a five-wicket haul between 2016 and 2018. He had lost pace, but Broad worked with Chris Silverwood when he was England bowling coach and remodelled his action with the help of Sir Richard Hadlee.
Two weeks ago he was “frustrated, angry and gutted” at being left out of the first Test. He will have to accept rotation at 34. But he looks determined to carry on after Anderson has retired and the hunger is still there for more milestones.