James Anderson

Full Name	James Anderson
Nickname	Jimmy
DoB	30th July 1982
Height	6' 2''
Bats/Bowls	Left hand/Right arm fast
Shirt Number	9
Lancashire	Debut: one-day 2001, first-class 2002. Cap 2003
Tests	50 - Debut v Zimbabwe, Lord's 2003
ODI	128 - Debut v Australia, Melbourne 2002. T20I's:19

Profile

James Anderson’s professional cricket career has had more than the odd up and down, whether it be bursting onto the international scene as a youngster against Pakistan in the 2003 World Cup, taking a one-day hat-trick against the same opponents on home soil shortly afterwards or losing that form completely, remodelling his action and being blighted by injury.

But, thankfully for the Burnley-born ace, his career now looks to be on the up.

He has recently joined Lancashire team-mate Andrew Flintoff as an Ashes winner, just months after being named as one of Wisden’s Cricketers of the Year for 2009.

The summer of 2008 was a stunning one for Anderson. He was England’s best bowler, claiming 42 Test, one-day international and Twenty20 wickets, but he was subsequently left out of the Stanford Twenty20 $20m dollar match in Antigua.

It was a harsh call on the now 27 year-old, but Lancashire fans knew only too well that he had the ability to bounce back once again. And, as it proved, it was sooner rather than later.

And, even better still, it was in a Lancashire shirt.

Jimmy, under the new county leadership of his former England coach Peter Moores, began the 2009 summer in county colours after a long winter which involved that ill-fated Stanford Series, a one-day and Test series in India and a return to the West Indies for more Tests and one-dayers.

The England management felt he needed some first-class cricket under his belt before the home series against the West Indies in May and then the Ashes. So he turned out for the Red Rose in their season opener against Sussex at Hove, and did so with devastating effect.

He claimed eleven wickets in the match as the county began the campaign in stunning fashion.

Only days earlier he had played in the season opener, a Friends Provident Trophy match against Glamorgan at Old Trafford, but didn’t feature again for the county for the rest of the summer. He had the Ashes to reclaim!

It would be difficult to find another cricketer in the world who shot to stardom quicker than Anderson. In his first season on the county circuit, 2002, Jimmy claimed fifty wickets and was rewarded with a place on the ECB National Academy trip to Australia the following winter. But that wasn’t even the half of it, because following a glut of injuries to the senior England side, who were also in Australia competing for the Ashes, the youngster was called up to the senior one-day squad.

This call meant that he made his debut in the game against Australia at the MCG on December 15. Only a few months earlier, having only played three limited overs games for Lancashire, he was still playing in Lancashire's second eleven - and at weekends Lancashire League cricket for his home town club.

His first international victim was Adam Gilchrist, as he claimed 1-46. He then followed that up with an economical ten over spell of 1-12 at Adelaide. To top off a marvellous winter, the newly-nicknamed ‘Burnley Express’ was selected to strut his stuff in the 2003 World Cup. Everyone will remember the farcical Zimbabwe situation that forced England out of that tournament, but they will also remember just as well Jimmy’s 4-29 against Pakistan in the final Pool A game at Cape Town. Saeed Anwar, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Yousuf Youhana (now named Mohammad Yousuf) and Rashid Latif were his victims, with Inzamam and Yousuf dismissed from consecutive deliveries.

Subsequently, a 2003 central contract was sent his way - as was a debut five wicket Test haul against Zimbabwe at Lord’s, and a one-day hat-trick against South Africa at the Oval.

In 2004 Jimmy turned in match figures of 10 for 81 against Worcestershire – the first time he had taken 10 wickets in a first class match – it also took him past 100 first class wickets. Unfortunately, his international career was starting to lose momentum with a role carrying the drinks on the winter tour to South Africa.

It didn’t do his 2005 Lancashire prospects any harm though. He played all 16 Championship games, taking 60 wickets.

A winter with England in Pakistan and India seemed as if it was going to prove more fruitful with solid performances in the one-day series against Pakistan and the third Test against India at Mumbai (match figures of 6-79). But, even though he had a successful one-day series in India, playing six out of seven games and leading the wicket taking charts with nine, he returned to home shores to find out that he had picked up a stress fracture of the back.

Jimmy spent the whole of the 2006 domestic season recovering, readying himself for a shot at retaining the Ashes down under that winter. Involvement in the Commonwealth Bank series win, and then the World Cup, was followed by another period on the international back-burner at the start of the summer of 2007.

New coach Peter Moores had Anderson travelling to home Test matches against the West Indies as a reserve in between featuring for Lancashire - until he finally got his chance against India. He was named England man of the series after a string of impressive performances against Tendulkar and company.

Anderson helped England to a series win against New Zealand over the following winter, and continued his form through the most recent summer against the same opponents and South Africa.

The winter of 2008/9 was a difficult one for everybody, whether it was the Stanford fiasco or the Mumbai bombings, and Anderson failed to chip in with any match winning performances.

But his winter was topped off with that aforementioned Wisden honour.

Now, with the Ashes looming, Anderson’s batting was starting to take some of the headlines.

The left-hander was seemingly improving with every innings, and he was on the way to a record of 53 Test match innings without recording a duck, a run ended by Ben Hilfenhaus in the final Ashes Test at the Oval in August, 2009.

He will always be remembered for the stone-wall defiance, with Monty Panesar for company, in which he ensured England drew the first Test at Cardiff after staring down the barrel for most parts.

Just as important he took 12 wickets in the series, including a first innings 4-55 in the Lord’s Test which England won to take a crucial lead in the series.

He is now, without doubt, one of England’s senior bowlers in all forms of cricket.

Graham Hardcastle
(c) Lancashire County Cricket Club Ltd
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