As Exit Looms, James Anderson Encourages Youth to Love Test Cricket

Great Englishman James Anderson, who is set to retire from the five-day match against the West Indies, hopes that players of the future will enjoy the challenge of Test cricket rather than merely go “chasing the dollar.” After a career that broke records over two decades, the Lancashire paceman’s 188th and last Test match will be the series opener at Lord’s, which begins on Wednesday. Anderson’s 700 Test wickets are the record for most fast bowlers, and only India’s greatest batsman, Sachin Tendulkar, has played 200 matches in the format.

Since 2003, when Anderson, now 41, made his Test debut against Zimbabwe at Lord’s, the cricket world has undergone a significant transformation.

In order to have a successful career, cricket players no longer need to establish themselves at the Test level. The emergence of profitable Twenty20 franchise competitions, such as the Indian Premier League, has allowed them to make significantly more money with significantly less effort.

The rewards of shorter-form cricket are especially alluring to fast bowlers because of the significantly reduced workload.

But Anderson told reporters at Lord’s on Monday that the longest version of the game had shaped him.

“Test cricket is literally the reason that I am the person that I am,” he said.

“It has taught me so many lessons through the years, built my resilience to a lot of things. I think the fulfilment you get from putting in a shift in a day’s cricket is different to anything else you can do in the game.”

In order to prolong his Test career, Anderson shortened his white-ball cricket career. He is currently third among all-time wicket-takers behind spinners Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka and Shane Warne of Australia.

“I know you can earn a lot of money from bowling four overs (in T20 cricket), but for me personally, I would never get the same sort of joy or fulfilment from taking wickets that are caught on the boundary compared to really giving a batter a working-over and figure someone out,” he said.

“I just hope there are enough kids and young professionals out there who still want that to be the case, rather than going chasing the dollar.”

Anderson was effectively forced into Test retirement by England chiefs, who want to rebuild ahead of the 2025/26 Ashes in Australia.

While accepting his career had to “end at some point”, Anderson insists he is “bowling as well as I ever have”.

Asked if he could have kept playing, the paceman added: “It’s difficult to say. I’ve not really got a choice.”

Indices of a makeover A day before the three-match series began, the hosts announced their team, so the England side will be on display at Lord’s.

Along with Surrey debutants Jamie Smith, the wicketkeeper, and Gus Atkinson, the fast bowler, Anderson, 42, has been picked later this month.

Although they have won just four of their last 11 Test matches, third-ranked England has played an exciting, attacking brand of cricket for the previous two years under captain Ben Stokes.

Earlier in the year, following their 4-1 series loss in India, coach Brendon McCullum pledged that the team will “refine” their aggressive style, which they called “Bazball” in his honor.

The eighth-ranked West Indies are hardly the same squad that ruled international cricket in the 1980s, but they caused a significant upset in January when they defeated Australia in Brisbane by eight runs.

In 27 years, it was their first Test victory on Australian soil.

Former West Indies captain Jason Holder, set to return to Test cricket after missing that tour, said: “I was just so happy for the boys when they did what they did in Australia.

“It gave me a renewed energy to come back to the group and try to be a part of something special again.”