James Anderson celebrates his 39th birthday today.
Since eternity, the cricketing fraternity has believed that a player whose primary skill is fast bowling cannot go on after his mid-30s in the longest format of the game but a Burnley born Lancashire pacer has defeated all the odds by some margin. Yes, you got it right and this column is all about James Anderson, the man who has a whopping 162 Test caps to his name and still has some left up his sleeve. When the great Sachin Tendulkar retired with 200 Test caps to his name not many would have fancied him to be followed by an outright fast-bowler in the number of Test match appearances but this is what Anderson is on the verge of achieving as he is just 6 Test matches short of the person 2nd on the list, Ricky Ponting who has 168 Test match appearances to his name. With Anderson in all likelihood to not retire before the Ashes scheduled to begin at the end of the year, he still has around 10 Tests (5 against India and 5 against Australia in the Ashes) if not more, left up his sleeve.
For long, the cricket pundits have believed that the spin trio of Muttiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne and Anil Kumble would never be separated in the tally of most Test wickets but Anderson believed otherwise and he is currently on the verge of separating this trio as he is just 2 wickets shy of Kumble and would in all likelihood cross his tally in the upcoming 5-match Test series which is coincidentally against Kumble’s nation itself, i.e., India.
Courtesy: Outlook India
CRITICISMS
Despite having the most Test wickets to his name as a fast-bowler, he is not talked of that highly by the lovers of the game as Glenn McGrath is and many refer to him with names like ‘Clouderson’ or ‘Home Track Bully’. The reason behind the name ‘Clouderson’, as claimed by his critics, comes due to his inability to take wickets when dark clouds or overcast conditions are not present while the tag of ‘Home Track Bully’ comes due to the fact that Anderson’s 387 wickets out of his tally of 617 have come on the English soil with a whopping 105 of them coming at Lord’s.
A statistical evidence behind calling him overrated is that he is the 3rd slowest to 400 Test wickets (behind Stuart Broad and Courtney Walsh), 2nd slowest to 500 Test wickets (behind Stuart Broad) and the slowest to 600 Test wickets.
Courtesy: The Sun
FLIP SIDE TO THE CRITICISMS
Ask any pacer on the planet about overcast conditions and they will reply that they get pumped up on seeing overcast conditions. In English Cricket season, it is way too common to experience overcast conditions and the presence of such conditions always helps in England and every single pacer’s performances increases drastically while bowling in overcast English conditions as compared to bowling on a sunny day because the overcast conditions are generally accompanied by a constant gentle breeze which helps the pacers swing the ball and the cracks, if present, act as an icing on the cake.
Muttiah Muralitharan has 166, 117 and 111 wickets at Sinhalese Sports Club Ground (Colombo), Asgiriya Stadium (Kandy), Galle International Stadium (Galle) respectively while Rangana Herath has 102 and 84 wickets at Galle International Stadium and Sinhalese Sports Club Ground respectively. Anderson’s partner-in-crime, Stuart Broad too has 95 Test wickets at Lord’s. The reason behind English pacers getting too many wickets at Lord’s is that England generally play way too many Tests at Lord’s, it being the Mecca of Cricket and same is the reason behind Sri Lankan spinners getting way too many wickets at Sinhalese Sports Club Ground and Galle International Stadium.
Anderson has played 91 Tests in England which accounts for 56.17% of his total Tests where he has picked up 387 wickets which accounts for 62.72% of his career wickets which very clearly shows that he is by no means a ‘Home Track Bully’ as it is more than obvious for any pacer bowling in a nation possessing pace friendly tracks to have a little more percentage of wickets as compared to the percentage of games played in that nation and had the difference been massive, the claim of Anderson being a ‘Home Track Bully’ would have been true which is certainly not the case.
Coming to the statistical evidence behind calling overrated, not many pacers have managed to take 400, 500 Test wickets and James Anderson is the lone pacer to account for 600 Test match scalps and though Anderson is one of the slowest, he has accounted for more Test wickets than any of the pacers who have been faster than him to the 400 and 500 Test wickets milestone.
England Cricket Board (ECB) and Cricket Australia (CA) are known to not give players a very long run based on their past reputation unlike other cricketing nations where one can even play for as long as 5 years without having an impact based on a reputation and name created in the past and hardly has any English player played international Cricket till this age as ECB and CA believe in getting rid of players when they find them to not be worthy enough in the present irrespective of their past reputation which has not been the case with Anderson due to his consistent performances despite his ever increasing age. It may not seem like a big achievement to some but the ardent fans of the game very well know how difficult and unimaginable it is for a pacer to play so many Tests and keep representing his country consistently in the longest format of the game till the age of 39 (you never know, it might be even more when he finally retires).
Courtesy: CricXtasy
A PHENOMENON
James Anderson last represented his country in the Test series against New Zealand at the age of 38 years and 315 days. Among genuine pacers (pace-bowling all-rounders not included), only Malcolm Jarvis (38 years and 324 days) has represented his nation at an older age and if we include all the players whose primary skill was being a pacer (pace-bowling all-rounders included alongside genuine pacers), James Anderson sits 4th on the list with Malcolm Jarvis (38 years and 324 days), Sir Richard Hadlee (39 years and 2 days) and Imran Khan (39 years and 68 days) being older than him when they last represented their nation. Anderson will be 39 years and 5 days old when England play India in the 1st Test on the 4th of August and even if he doesn’t get a go in that game, he will still have 4 more games in the same series to cross Jarvis and Hadlee. In all likelihood, Anderson will certainly not be retiring at the earliest before the Ashes (8 Dec-18 Jan) and for sure will cross Imran Khan as well to become the oldest pacer (among players whose primary skill is being a pacer) ever to have represented his country in Tests.
James Anderson made his Test debut on 22 May 2003 against Zimbabwe at Lord's and has had a Test career span of 18 years and 22 days (counted till the last game he featured in) till now. Among genuine pacers (pace-bowling all-rounders not included), nobody has had such a long career in the Test arena. Upon including all the bowlers whose primary skill was being a pacer (pace-bowling all-rounders included alongside genuine pacers), Anderson sits just 2nd on the list behind Imran Khan who had a glorious Test career of 20 years and 218 days. Anderson is 39 years but still has the hunger to represent his country at the highest level and only a few months back, he stated that he believes he can still reach the 700 Test wickets mark. Though, it seems to be a very long shot but considering Anderson’s fitness and the hunger to keep playing, he might as well surprise everyone by overhauling the span of Imran’s Test career as well if he goes on to clock the 700-figure mark.
James Anderson recently crossed the tally of a thousand First-Class wickets (currently has 1003 First-Class wickets) and keeping in mind the schedule and trend of modern-day Cricket with respect to the decrease in the number of Tests being played along with the number of bowlers having a huge tally of Test or First-Class wickets diminishing rapidly, he might be the last ever bowler to reach quadruple figures in terms of First-Class wickets tally.
Anderson is a supreme example of fitness for the other pacers who generally start getting injury prone from their early 30s. The success behind Anderson’s success lies in his exemplary discipline and his smooth bowling action as in-depth analysis reveal that almost 3/4th of the injuries among pacers are caused due to the irregularities present in their bowling action which is not the case with Anderson. Another reason behind it is that Anderson, unlike other big names, never ran behind any of the lucrative leagues (with IPL being one of the supreme examples) or the limited overs format and saved himself to give his all to the most supreme and purest format of Cricket.
James Anderson by his feats has ensured that his name will never go into the oblivion even in the span of light years. Jimmy is like a Scotch which gets even more pleasant to watch (drink in case of Scotch) with time and if you observe deeply and submerge yourself in the depths of his bowling action, you will surely find that it is just as fine and smooth as a Scotch can ever get and instead of criticizing him, it would be better if everyone in the cricketing fraternity just admires the last chapter of this phenomenon called James Anderson as in all likelihood, none of us will ever be able to witness a pacer with such a massive tally of Test match wickets again in the course of their lifetime.
Courtesy: Times of India
Top 5 Highest Wicket-Taker In Tests
Muttiah Muralitharan: 800
Shane Warne:708
Anil Kumble: 619
James Anderson: 617*
Glenn McGrath: 563
(* signifies active Test players)
