Former England captain Nasser Hussain reflects on reports that James Anderson’s contract will not be renewed at Lancashire, which would end his 26-year career at his boyhood county and raise questions over the 44-year-old’s future in the sport Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player This would be a hugely sad way for James Anderson to go out. Of all the things wrong at Lancashire recently and all the problems they’ve had, on and off the field, I didn’t think Anderson was one of them. He took 50 wickets at an average of 17 last season and is a Lancashire boy through and through. He’s still bowling well and obviously he’s had a couple of injuries, but when he has played he has still put in performances.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player I remember selecting him for England in 2002 in Australia and we picked him from Lancashire’s second team virtually – that’s how long he’s been there. His longevity is just incredible really for a fast bowler. I don’t know what the financial situation is at Lancashire, so I don’t want to comment too much on whether it’s right or wrong, but it just didn’t seem to me to be the change that you need to make at that club. If you want to make change, you’ve got to try and have people like Anderson that take you and help you on that journey.
I’m just not sure it’s the way you treat such a legend of the club, just not to renew his contract like that. I’d rather not focus in on how it ended, both for England and for Lancashire – I’d rather be thankful that we’ve had 26 years of Anderson giving it all for England and Lancashire. I thought it was a marginal call at best from England to leave him out and retire him the way they did, because they wanted younger bowlers like Gus Atkinson and Josh Tongue to come through. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player He would have bowled alright in Australia last winter, I tell you.
He’d have bowled better than some that bowled out there and he bowled better than some that bowled for Lancashire this summer and have done for the last 26 years. If Anderson is the problem at Lancashire, I’ve been watching a different Lancashire over the last few years – he is the last of their problems. I can’t believe that he’s going to be treated like this and he deserves a bit better. I’d say most counties in the country would take Anderson, even at the age of 44.
When I watched clips of him this summer, he still had that magic about him and the hunger. His skill is just incredible – the control of the ball, the way he changed from being a swing bowler to a wobble seam bowler and a swing bowler, his hunger, his fitness and his longevity. Who knows what Anderson will do next, and there’s rumours of him retiring, but I’d rather think about the great cricketer that we’ve had for all those years – and how brilliant he was. Paul Farbrace has come in at Lancashire as director of cricket and probably wants a clean sweep, to go in a new direction.
He’s decided that they’re going to go into that direction without Anderson. Lancashire have so underachieved in the last few years and they were second from bottom in Division Two. There’s obviously the financial constraints and you want to sign players, but Lancashire and Farbrace have to work out a way of making them back to being a great cricketing side. If they’re going in a change of direction, can they do that with the shadow of one of their greatest ever still being in that dressing room?
I would think you would use all the assets Anderson has and all that hunger and all that pride of playing – you’d think that would be an asset to take you in that direction. I don’t want to speak for the members, but I think Lancashire members feel cricket has not become a priority for them. If you get your cricket right, everything generally flows from that, and I personally think Lancashire are a better side with a 44-year-old Anderson than without. Watch England’s ODI tri-series with Pakistan and Sri Lanka throughout October live on Sky Sports Cricket.
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