James Anderson reckons there won’t ever be another fast bowler to follow in his and Stuart Broad’s footsteps.
Les Jackson was the last 40-year-old seamer to take a Test wicket for England in 1961, but this week he will open the bowling in a Test match as a 40-year-old still at the pinnacle of the game, setting the standards that others try to match.
It will be his 173rd Test, and coming fully six weeks after his last match, it will hurt, because Test matches do, especially for fast bowlers. He can expect to bowl around forty overs at Lord’s, a significant increase on the four overs per game for a T20. And his pro rata pay packet will be somewhat short of a top bracket franchise bowler too, but still, there is nowhere he’d rather be.
“I feel proud I've got to where I have,” said Anderson. “It’s an amazing game to play. There’s nothing better than Test cricket for me so I will do that for as long as I possibly can.
"Will there be another 40 year old seamer? Maybe Broady but definitely not after that because no-one will be stupid enough.
“With the way everything has gone in the world with franchise cricket, the Hundred, short forms of the game, I can’t see anyone wanting to play Test cricket for this long. Broady and I were fortunate that our white-ball careers pretty much ended after that World Cup and we could focus on red-ball cricket.
"In the future, I can see it definitely being the other way round – with people picking and choosing their formats, tours, whatever it might be.
"I think it does make me sad because Test cricket will probably bear the brunt of it. The easiest thing to do for bowlers is to bowl four overs or 20 balls. It takes nothing out of you. And if you’re getting paid just as well it probably makes sense – it will tempt more people than not.”
Both Anderson and Stuart Broad are committed in their desire to squeeze every last drop out of their careers, even when others might have been ready to move them along. And right now, under the leadership of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, that desire is greater than ever.
“I think the fact that we've won four Test matches earlier in the summer obviously helps,” added Anderson. “When you're winning, I feel like you want to be around that. I think a lot of the credit has got to go to the captain and coach because the thing about the ups and downs of Test cricket is they can have a real effect on people.
“You know the highs, you can get too caught up in everything and then the lows you can get too down. Whereas with Brendon and Stokes there's just this constant positivity from them. I felt as happy as I have done in an England dressing room for a number of years, so the last five weeks I've just been itching to get back in there. It is just an exciting place to be right now.”
