Retired England great and pace veteran James Anderson has made a startling revelation about his retirement. Notably, the pacer with most Test wickets in history, had announced his retirement from the longest format during a series against West Indies last year in July.
However, the 42-year-old has now come out in the open and said that he had no plans to retire but was forced to do so.
Speaking to The Independent in an interview, Anderson was quoted as saying,
“I’m still a bit mixed on it. It’s one of those things that was out of my hands. They made the decision to move away from having me in the team. That was pretty gutting at the time. I’d been preparing before my last Test match for the next six, 12, 18 months of Test cricket; I wasn’t anywhere near retirement in my head. I felt I still had that want and hunger to play, to do the hard yards, the training, the skill work”.
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In May of last year, the England team management, comprising England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) managing director Rob Key, head coach Brendon McCullum, and captain Ben Stokes had informed James Anderson that he was no longer part of their future plans. The team was looking to transition away from the veteran pacer. A month later, Anderson had played his last international game, the first match of the three-game series against the Windies.
The right-handed seamer thus pulled curtains on an illustrious career, where he finished with 704 scalps in 188 Test matches.
Interestingly, following his retirement, the pacer took up the role of bowling mentor for the remainder of the Test series. He continued in the capacity, further contributing to England’s setup before Tim Southee replaced him as a special skills consultant earlier this month.
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