ENJOY HIM WHILE YOU STILL CAN
The real Jimmy Anderson loves winter morning runs, gives tips to rivals...and could bow out after next year’s Ashes
IT IS fitting that one of the exit strategies for a man dubbed this week English cricket’s greatest player features walking off at The Oval in 12 months’ time as a five-time Ashes winner.
Neither should it surprise those who have admired Jimmy Anderson’s meticulous attention to detail when it comes to his bowling artistry that Test cricket’s most prolific seamer has planned ahead. Nor that he has considered alternatives to Plan A.
Of course, departing after vanquishing the Australians is the romantic’s choice. But after a week of such wonderful storylines, everyone associated with English cricket can be forgiven for dreaming of a reprise next September.
A lot will happen over the course of England’s next 11 Tests. But let us, just for a moment, dwell on the image of the hero’s farewell as he strolls from the field, arm in arm with new-ball partner Stuart Broad. Anderson has.
He will be celebrated and lionised just as his best pal Alastair Cook has been in recent days and he will deserve it. Through his tears this week, he will have seen beauty in going out in glory. It’s the way the very best players should say their goodbyes.
Publicly, Anderson said yesterday he was taking things game by game, just as he has done for close to 16 years at the top. For an idea of his longevity, consider the fact he is the only current England player to know what it feels like to experience a Test without Cook.
So, what of the future? It would be folly from a performance perspective to quit if he can maintain the standards of this summer when he has arguably been bowling better than ever (33 wickets in seven Tests at 18.39 runs apiece).
Equally, however, 12 months is a long time and, despite the wonderful economy of effort in his action, the force of approximately ten times a bowler’s bodyweight goes through his front leg with every delivery. The endurance required is remarkable.
When the end came for Australia’s Glenn McGrath, whose 563-wicket tally Anderson surpassed on Tuesday, it came quickly. He was a month shy of 37, the age the Lancastrian will be when the fifth Ashes Test begins. West Indies great Courtney Walsh was 38.
All three possess wiry frames but whereas the other two would bowl themselves fit, Anderson’s dedication away from the field has been key. Naturally, the focus remains on his graceful approach to the crease and not the winter mornings when he sets off in beanie hat and gloves from the gates of Old Trafford to pound the Manchester streets.
Anderson’s performances against Pakistan and India are all the more impressive because cortisone injections were required in his ankle and shoulder at the start of the summer.
The shoulder problem flared again in midsummer, but he did not miss a minute of England action.
Parting will not be easy, for Anderson is a genuine Test cricket aficionado, to the extent he shares the same concerns for its future as the fans. After a press conference earlier this year in which he discussed the subject, he sent me an email reminiscing about falling in love with the nuances of sport as a lad in Burnley, and how in this era of instant gratification, he hoped an audience still existed who could see the value of waiting for the kind of ‘I was there’ moment that Cook provided on Monday. His own involved being high-fived by little-known Burnley midfielder John Deary after a winning goal at Huddersfield back in the day.
Devoted to his craft, and equally generous of spirit, he has sent tactical observations on batsmen to South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada, the closest bowler to him in the world rankings — clearly viewing shared knowledge as a requirement of the fast bowlers’ union.
Over a glass of wine at the end of the 2017-18 Ashes, he offered a prescient observation on India’s pace bowlers and the unorthodox Jasprit Bumrah in particular.
While Anderson had transferred his skills to Tests from a firstclass grooving based on lengthy spells, he was excited about the prospect of Bumrah learning another way, developing the talent that had made him successful in the IPL for the longer journey.
Test bowlers have to be accurate to survive and here was one who made a Twenty20 living delivering death-over yorkers at will.
Despite the 4-1 scoreline against India, he was right to be excited. This episode is typical of Anderson’s career. When it comes to bowlers, he has always looked for the good in others. Most notably in 2010, the year in which he added the wobble-seam delivery to his arsenal. He did so after watching and copying Pakistan’s Mohammad Asif.
Among other significant events in the making of the world’s most decorated paceman — discounting the moment the mother of his childhood pal David Brown told Lancashire they should take a look at the 15-year-old Anderson ‘because he’s going to be very good’ — was learning to swing the ball conventionally. For that, England are thankful to Mike Watkinson. During his first full season at Lancashire, Anderson possessed tyro speed but little else. The combination of pace and swing encouraged England to select him in 2002-03, the winter when I first met him. His staccato answers to questions at the Gabba provide a sharp contrast to today’s thinking cricketer. Confidence has played its part. Due to the ups and downs of his early career — a remodelled action, a year of trekking the globe forlornly bowling at cones, and another in which he was consigned to viewing the 2006 World Cup and an early series of Big Brother from his bed due to a stress fracture — Anderson had more than 100 Test wickets before he believed he belonged at the top level. The turning point came in Trinidad in 2009. England, pushing for victory to level the series, turned to Anderson and reverse swing. Despite bowling brilliantly to return figures of 16-7-24-3, his efforts proved futile; West Indies clung on eight down. But emerging as the main man in the attack did wonders for his self-belief. There will be those who vilify him for an on-field demeanour that saw him fined 15 per cent of his match fee this week for showing dissent to umpire Kumar Dharmasena. But the bowler and the man are very different. The autobiography I ghosted for him gets to the heart of his split personality.
Psychologist Mark Bawden encouraged him to become Jimmy whenever he crossed the boundary edge.
To me, he remains James, the guy whose inherent shyness is still mistaken for aloofness. A real team man. On that tour of the Caribbean nine years ago, I became ill with a chest infection. He would knock on the door of my hotel room in Jamaica daily, ferrying medication and checking on my wellbeing. His humour is dry and he does not mind poking fun at himself. Check the Test
Match Special Twitter feed or his role in Graeme Swann’s 2010-11 Ashes video diaries for evidence.
He is a real family man, too. In the future he will be able to steal more time for a summer holiday than the few days he managed with wife Daniella and daughters Lola and Ruby in Greece between the third and fourth Tests.
Exactly when that will be remains moot. Let’s enjoy him while we can.