Jimmy Anderson is one of the world's finest sportsmen after 500 Test wickets

Anderson celebrates his 500th Test wicket at Lord's
AFP/Getty Images
Tom Collomosse8 September 2017

Forget English cricket. Forget world cricket, too. It is time to acknowledge Jimmy Anderson as one of the finest sportsmen on the planet.

If that seems too excitable a judgement, consider the evidence. Only two seam bowlers in the history of the Test game - Courtney Walsh and Glenn McGrath - had reached 500 wickets before today. Of all the quicks to have played international cricket, Anderson is now in a select group of three.

It happened from the last ball of Anderson’s second over today, and it was a beauty, an inswinger that felled Kraigg Brathwaite’s middle stump. Anderson, beaming, ran towards his team-mates, who each congratulated in term. As the crowd stood to applaud him, Anderson held up the ball to all four corners of Lord’s. Nobody who saw it will ever forget it.

The problem for Anderson is that he has spent much of his international career behind a television paywall, with no free-to-air cricket available in England since the 2005 Ashes.

Though he lacks the forceful personality of Sir Ian Botham or Andrew Flintoff, his excellence alone would surely have made him a household name like Wayne Rooney or Sir Andy Murray, had more people been able to watch him in action.

AFP/Getty Images

Before the Third Investec Test started, Anderson had 497 wickets at 27.74 apiece, in his 128 Tests. In the second half of his career, his fitness record has been impeccable, bar a few niggles in the last 18 months that he seems to have overcome.

Life has not always been easy for Anderson. While he always had talent, he struggled with injuries and found consistency hard to find during the early part of his England career, but things started to move in the right direction when he and Stuart Broad were selected for a Test against New Zealand at Wellington in March 2008, ahead of Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison.

Since then, Anderson has been a byword for brilliance. Yes, his record overseas is not as good as it is in this country, but he has still made vital contributions: he took 24 wickets in Australia when England won the Ashes in 2010-11, and MS Dhoni said he was the difference between the sides when England won in India in 2012.

p96 Jimmy Anderson

Even though England were beaten 3-0 by Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates in 2012, Anderson still bowled very well.

At home, he is virtually unplayable, bowling inswingers and outswingers with little discernible change in action. Even the world’s best batsmen are unable to pick his variations and are left to marvel at his subtlety and skill.

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As he has grown older, Anderson has become a mentor to his team-mates. Even though he is a quiet man - jokingly described as ‘grumpy’ by the majority of his colleagues - Anderson’s knowledge of swing bowling is virtually unrivalled.

Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images

From his fielding position at mid-on or mid-off, he is able to pass wisdom to England’s new generation - Chris Woakes, Toby Roland-Jones, even Ben Stokes.

Yet as carefully as they might listen to him, it is highly unlikely they will be able to match him. Anderson stands head and shoulders above other England bowlers and in an era when sporting praise is dispensed far too easily, it is about time this determined, unassuming cricketer received the recognition he deserves.

If reaching 500 wickets does not bring that, perhaps nothing will.

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