Jimmy Anderson and Time

Time.

It is one of the greatest clichés in the vocabulary of sport, but, like many clichés it is true The greats appear to have more time than others. In cricket it is usually used in relation to great batsmen, who appear, by virtue of superior eyesight and physical coordination, able to move more slowly and play the ball later than their confrères.

Jimmy Anderson had time, but in a different way. He cheated it. He cheated it by staying fitter and slimmer and more supple and more mobile and more committed than any 41 year-old has ever done in cricket’s modern age. And, because cricket’s modern age is so distinct from all that has preceded it, it is conceivable, if not certain, that cricket has never seen anyone like him. What is completely certain is that it will never know anyone like him again.

With the shadows lengthening on the future of Test cricket, nobody will ever again play as many matches, or bowl as many balls, or take as many wickets. These are truths.

In regard to the complex amalgam of repetitive physical effort, honed technique and mental application that is top-level seam bowling, Jimmy Anderson was the phenomenon’s phenomenon. When the greats retire they always speak of the loss of hunger. Jimmy Anderson never did this, and in his own mind the only road he had reached the end of was one he’d been directed down. Sure, one he was reconciled to, and the rare smiles of nostalgia, of joy and of familial love he displayed these past days showed that, but one he would not have chosen to travel if given the choice.

It was a rare privilege to be at Lord’s on Friday 12th July 2024 and to be only yards from Jimmy Anderson’s family and his England colleagues as the accolades flowed. I found my attention drawn to the younger members of the England team: Harry Brook, Gus Atkinson, and especially Jamie Smith; people who were barely more than toddlers when Anderson’s career began. Brook fooling around with carefree insouciance; Atkinson thoughtful, perhaps considering the fact that on his debut he has managed to do something which Anderson, in 188 matches, never did; Smith, 24 years old on the day but looking younger than his years and taking everything in with thoughtful intensity.

These people have time. They probably have more time than they can even imagine, since their careers may last more than half as long as they have yet lived. There is every chance that any or all of them will be greats of the world game. Now people talk about the fact that Jimmy Anderson played Test cricket with Alec Stewart; in time people will talk about the fact that they played with Jimmy Anderson.

Time lends perspective, prompts reflection, magnifies memories. In time Jimmy Anderson will reflect on a career fulfilled and a seam (pun intended) well mined. His younger colleagues will remember him for what he was and the fact that they, once, were with him in his last days.

So, we move on. The world is different now.