James Anderson is the greatest cricketer England has produced in the past half-century
When James “Jimmy” Anderson made his Test match debut in 2003, Steve Waugh’s Australians were still smashing the record books, Virat Kohli was a teenager and the England cricket team was not really competitive. Seventeen years later, Jimmy Anderson is in the pantheon of great Test bowlers. Having taken 600 Test match wickets, he has achieved an unbelievable record for the most by any fast bowler. The three men above him in the wickets charts — India’s Anil Kumble, Australian legend Shane Warne and Sri Lanka maestro Muttiah Muralitharan — are all spinners. Fast bowlers tend to have short and sharp careers but Anderson has defied age, partially thanks to his intelligence as a cricketer. Over the past few years, he has lengthened his run-up so as to put less stress on his body. Soon after he took Pakistani captain Azhar Ali’s wicket to get to 600, he was heard saying that 700 could be achievable. At the rate Anderson is grabbing his wickets and if the cricket calendar returns to a sense of normalcy — only England is hosting matches for the time being — he could easily bag that number.
Modern-day cricketers do find it easier to break records simply because of the frequency with which the game is played nowadays and as Test cricket has itself become more competitive, there are more results to show. What is also telling is that, thanks to modern fitness regimes and diets, athletes are playing for longer. American NFL legend Tom Brady is still playing at the age of 41, Anderson and battery mate Stuart Broad are playing comfortably in their late-30s and Roger Federer belies his age as does Rafael Nadal. The latter has dealt with physical issues, one that had forced others into retirement in the past decades. But with experienced athletes continuing to ply their trade at such advanced ages, with less physicality but more guile, what happens to up and coming stars? This is a challenge for sports administrators and leagues across the world. Youth, impatient for success, might start feeling frustrated due to the lack of opportunities. In that sense, the world of sports, with legends like Anderson still plying their trade, is just a microcosm of the world around us where we are told that our 40s are the new 30s. Maybe an expansion of teams and leagues might be in order to ensure that more young players get a chance while also making sure that greatness can also carry on.