Former England pacer James Anderson revealed that he was nowhere close to retirement when he took a call on his Test career. The 42-year-old brought the curtains down on his career ten months ago following the first Test against West Indies last year. Anderson has now claimed that he didn’t wilfully retire and that it was a decision taken by the management.
Did Anderson retire forcefully?
Speaking to The Independent, Anderson said that his decision to retire from cricket was out of his hands. He revealed that that the decision that was made by the team management was prertty gutting but he had no option but to move on.
“I’m still a bit mixed on it. It’s one of those things that was out of my hands. They made the decision to move away from having me in the team. That was pretty gutting at the time. I’d been preparing before my last Test match for the next six, 12, 18 months of Test cricket; I wasn’t anywhere near retirement in my head. I felt I still had that want and hunger to play, to do the hard yards, the training, the skill work,” Anderson said.
In May 2024, reports claimed that it was England coach Brendon McCullum who had told Anderson that he would have to retire. As per The Guardian, McCullum made a five-day stop in the UK and informed Anderson over a golf tour that he expected the veteran to retire. He cited the need for England to look into the future of their Test side as to why Anderson should retire.
After 21 years, Anderson has played the second most Test matches (186) by a player. He is the third-highest wicket-taker, has 32 four-wicket and five-wicket hauls, and 3 ten-wicket hauls. He has become the most-capped pacer bowler and has bowled the fourth most balls in Test history. He played with players younger than his international cricket career (Rehan Ahmed and Shoaib Bashir).
The post Was Anderson forced into retirement? Ex-England pacer makes “gutting” confession appeared first on Inside Sport India.