England’s greatest Test wicket-taker tells Felix White about surviving the slings and arrows of tours to Australia.
The full interview with Anderson will appear in issue 2 of Wisden Cricket Monthly, available to buy on December 14
We are right on the precipice of the 70th Ashes and as ever, the phony wars are raging. In a week in which noises about “ending England players’ careers” have come from the Australian camp, alongside the usual mining of past series for clues as to what awaits us, the actual cricket is finally upon us. The truth is, no-one really knows where it’s going to land. There are plausible cases to be made for any of the extremes of the last few Ashes tours.
One man who’s weathered the tumult of Ashes touring is James Anderson. On the eve of flying out to Australia for what he accepts will be his final stint there as attack leader, Anderson decamped to a north London pub to discuss his cricketing life for an upcoming Wisden Cricket Monthly cover story. But for all that he’s seen and done, the conversation of course regularly found its way back to the Ashes and, perhaps inevitably, those six magical weeks at the end of 2010.
What were the components beneath the surface that gave that team such an edge? “I wouldn’t say we were the ideal team,” he says. “It wasn’t about amazing team spirit, but we had so much respect for each other. We didn’t go out for dinner with each other or anything, but as soon as we were out on the field, we knew exactly what each other was going to deliver. We were a team on the field, not necessarily best friends off it, but absolutely ruthless on it.”
“Joe [Root] isn’t going to want to talk before every day of this Australia tour. Every now and then you need to call upon one of the senior members or a coach or whoever it is just to say a few words. I think the team need a lot of leaders in there.”
Anderson has been impressed with the way Root has managed to adapt to captaincy without too much deviation from his dressing room presence until now. “He’s not really changed, if anything he’s a little more serious. He became a dad and England captain within weeks. It’s going to change you a little bit. I remember becoming a dad and it does change you – ‘Right I’ve got to grow up a bit’. But the sense of humour is still there.”
A feeling of quiet confidence and general calm has been the general theme for an inexperienced touring side in preparation, perhaps owing to a senior core that has seen too much to lose perspective. “I’ve not spoken to Mitchell since he retired. We were always fierce rivals on the field but I’ve had a beer with him a couple times after a series and he’s honestly the most gentle bloke, such a nice guy. David Saker used to tell us about Shane Watson, saying ‘He’s the nicest guy in the world’. Adam Gilchrist sent me a message when I got 500 wickets. I thought, ‘What a legend.’”
This, we can only assume, will be Anderson’s final series in Australia. “I’m 2-1 down in overseas Ashes series. I don’t know how long I’ve got left, but it won’t be long, one or two years, whatever it is. I’m not going to be able to play international cricket until I’m 40 realistically.” Such questions though, are for another time. On the eve of his fourth and final series down under, England will be looking to their lynchpin as much as ever.
