London, Oct 30 (IANS) Fast bowling great James Anderson has said Lancashire’s decision not to renew his contract in the county championship made him question whether the fault ‘fundamentally’ lies with him as a person.
Anderson, England’s leading Test wicket-taker with 704 dismissals, added that he was ‘sad’ and ‘shocked’ by the decision and has yet to make up his mind about playing on for another county.
Anderson captained Lancashire last season and took 50 County Championship wickets, but the team finished second from bottom in Division Two. “All of the way through the season myself and the head coach were like ‘is it something we are doing? Could we be doing more to help the team?’
“I finished the season thinking, ‘was it something I did? Was I doing something wrong?’ – and then I get this news. Now I am thinking that even more. I am thinking ‘this is happening again. Is there something fundamentally wrong with me as a person?’ Your head just sort of races.
“I wanted to see my career out with Lancs. I don’t know if my career is done, we will have to wait and see, but it would be nice at some point if someone would let me retire,” said Anderson on the BBC Tailenders podcast.
The ‘again’ refers to 2024, when England ended Anderson’s Test career as the side set about building a new pace attack for the Ashes trip in Australia. This time the news came from Lancashire’s incoming director of cricket Paul Farbrace, who met Anderson along with new chief executive Richard Kenyon and told him the club wanted to build an attack for the future.
“I went in for what I thought was a conversation about how the team moves forward. It wasn’t a great year for the team. Being a captain I thought it was chat about that. A couple of minutes in I realised it wasn’t a conversation. I was being told they thought the best way for the team to move forward was without me. I was quite shocked. It was quite brief,” added Anderson.
The decision to move on from Anderson has upset many Lancashire members. Stuart Broad, Anderson’s long-time new-ball partner for England, called it ‘pretty disrespectful’ and said denying the veteran a farewell showed poor leadership at the club.
Anderson first appeared in List A cricket in 2000 as a 17-year-old, playing for the Lancashire Cricket Board against Suffolk. Along with his 911 international wickets, the most by any England player and by any fast bowler in history, he has taken 443 first-class wickets for the county, while taking 83 and 50 scalps in List A matches and T20 games respectively.
Other counties are understood to be interested in signing Anderson, who turns 45 next summer. Asked about a move to arch-rivals Yorkshire, he joked that he ‘wouldn’t have thought’ it was possible, but admitted to slowly coming to terms with what had happened.
“I am still trying to process everything and weigh up the best way forward for me. It has been 10 days since it happened. I am starting to get excited about the future, whether it is something different or playing cricket again. It is exciting. There are exciting challenges ahead. I have to attack it like that and not dwell too much on how or why it finished at Lancs.”
Despite the manner of his exit, Anderson said his bond with Lancashire remains intact. “I am sad the way it ended with the club I supported as a kid but now that I have thought about it, I am quite excited for the future. I am always going to support Lancashire.
“I was born there, grew up watching them, had some of my most memorable days out with dad watching them, got to play for them and captain the club, which is something most people dream about. I feel like I have a special connection with the club and will always support them,” he concluded.
–IANS
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