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James Anderson has recalled the moment he was told his Test career was over in a Manchester hotel as the record-breaking England fast bowler opens up about his retirement in an upcoming book.
Anderson’s time in international cricket came to an end after the first Test of the summer against the West Indies, with captain Ben Stokes, coach Brendon McCullum and general manager of men’s cricket Rob Key opting to bleed a new set of seamers and leave their all-time best wicket-taker.
The 42-year-old Lancashire bowler finished with 704 wickets in Test cricket, more than any other fast bowler, and thought he had been called in for a routine assessment after the tour of India in April this year.
But upon entering the Dakota Hotel to meet Stokes, McCullum and Key, Anderson quickly realized the end was near, recalling a scene from Martin Scorsese’s 1990 gangster film.
“As I walk towards them, it sends a chill down my spine. This isn’t a team evaluation, is it? Anderson writes in his next book: Find the edge, serialized in the Sunday Times. “With each step towards the other side of the bar, each of their distinct silhouettes appearing, the tram journey just ended suddenly seems like a happy past life, the sun outside sucked into a horizonless neon red darkness.
“My brain does the math and my heart sinks when I shake their hand. I feel like Joe Pesci in Goodfellas, brought into a room feeling like I’m going to get done, only to get shot. You are fucking. They’re going to tell me something I don’t want to be told, right? Something that I have deviated, darted, metamorphosed, gone through my whole life.
Anderson was given the option of wrapping up his Test career before the summer or enjoying a swansong against the West Indies at the Home of Cricket after McCullum, Key and Stokes decided he would not be able to play until next winter’s Ashes series. He has since taken on the role of bowling coach in England.
The veteran had already been left out once at the start of 2022 by then-acting director of cricket Andrew Strauss, who omitted Anderson and his long-time opening partner Stuart Broad from a team tasked with visiting the Antilles.
“The last time England tried to do this was a 45-second phone call from Andrew Strauss before the West Indies tour in early 2022,” Anderson recalls. “He had just said on the phone, in an incredibly direct and rapid manner, ‘There’s no easy way to say this, but we’re going in a different direction.’ We give young players a chance. That was all. No other information. End of call.
“I didn’t want to talk because my kids were in the car. I didn’t tell them about it, I just drove them home, phoned Stuart Broad, who had also been dropped, and went to the gym. We took our combined 1,177 wickets and got ourselves in shape. They called it a “red ball reset.” It turned out that the red ball reset had to reset pretty quickly and three months later we were at it again. Strauss and I have never spoken about it since. I guess you’d rather be stabbed in the front than in the back.
