James Anderson, one of the finest swing bowlers, or maybe the finest to have ever played the game, has hung his boots. It was bound to happen one day. He announced his retirement well in advance. Everything went well in his last match. England, who he served for 22 years, a feat only topped by the great Sachin Tendulkar among the players with over 100 Tests in their stats, won the game comfortably on third day’s first session. Jimmy Anderson took four wickets in total and bid adieu to the game of glorious uncertainties with 704 wickets.
Just imagine, even OGs such as Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Muttiah Muralidharan, Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev couldn’t maintain their energy for so many years. Jimmy has been different.
He was never like Kapil Dev who the team India had to forcefully continue till he broke all those records in the ‘90s. He should be thankful to his generous captains. Had he been in teams like Australia or England, or even the current team India, he would have retired a few years ago. We know how painful it was to watch him during the last matches. To put it mildly, batsmen took all sorts of freedom against him. Let’s not talk about the rest in respect of his legendary career.
Anderson kept bowling with accuracy over 130KMPH speed, and that outward swing from the fourth stump! We would never be able to forget those cutters and zippers even if we wanted to. The point here is could he not play one more Test just to topple another legend Shane Warne’s total wicket tally of 708 wickets. After all, he took four wickets in his last game. He wouldn’t have taken more than one Test! That could have been a fitting end to a glorious career. So what he had announced retirement. He deserved to be the number two in that list of top Test wicket takers.
I understand, everything was pre-planned and it was like an event, but we can still defy the usual norms, no? What difference will it make to the authorities? They need to respect a great cricketer. Haven’t retired players been brought back for important games? Let’s do it one more time. For Jimmy. He is not done yet.
(Author: Rohit Vats)
