He’ll finish where he started: at Lord’s with Rob Key looking on admiringly and a Labour prime minister residing in Downing Street. Some 21 years ago, when Tony Blair was in charge and Key was batting at No 5 for England, a shy, young whippersnapper from Burnley, James Anderson, made his Test debut against Zimbabwe.
It’s a long time ago and quite a lot has changed since then: on that weekend at the end of May 2003, Paul McCartney was performing in front of 100,000 fans in Moscow’s Red Square, preparations were in hand for the first ever Twenty20 matches on the county circuit and Phil Tufnell was about to win I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! What remains is the prospect of Anderson bowling for England in a Lord’s Test match – one last time.
