England legend James Anderson was considering taking part in The Hundred as a player before deciding against it, the fast bowler revealed in a recent interview on Thursday. The 38-year-old fast bowler will be part of the commentary team for the upcoming 100-balls-per-side tournament.
Anderson will be called upon to lead the English bowling attack when they host India in a five-match Test series from August 4 while The inaugural edition of The Hundred will be played from July 22 to August 21.
Anderson, England’s highest Test wicket-taker, retired from the shorter formats of international cricket in 2015 to prolong his red-ball career but said that he was tempted by the idea of returning to white-ball cricket with The Hundred but didn’t go ahead with the idea as he did not want to jeopardise his Test availability.
“I did think about whether I should actually try and get a gig as a player, but in the end I just felt it was probably for the younger guys to crack on with that. I didn’t want to affect my Test availability by getting injured throwing myself around in the Hundred – it might not have been the best idea,” Anderson said at the media launch of The Hundred.
Anderson will have a chance to add another feather to his already illustrious Test career in the upcoming series against India. After reaching the milestone of 600 Test scalps last year, Anderson is now just 3 wickets away from surpassing third-placed Indian leg-spin legend Anil Kumble on the all-time list.
Anderson currently had 617 wickets from 162 Tests while Kumble picked 619 scalps in 132 matches.
“I did explore it – I was interested, but I fell down on the side of prolonging my Test career. I didn’t want to jeopardise that too much so I’ll leave it to the young lads to throw themselves around in the field too much,” he added.
NO HARM IN THE HUNDRED
But Anderson also made it clear that unlike him, England’s other Test players who will be taking part in The Hundred won’t worry about picking up injuries in the tournament before the India series, and give it their all.
“You can get injured at any point – that’s just the nature of the game. I don’t think people are going to be careful because of a Test series: you’ve got to throw yourself into it and try to play at 100% every time you get the chance. Hopefully nothing like that happens but there obviously is the chance because every time you go out on the field there is a chance of injury.
“I think there’s definitely no harm in playing the Hundred and playing some white-ball cricket, having that freedom to go out there and try and hit the ball. Test cricket does have a way of trying to stifle you at times and you can get a bit uncertain about your technique or movements and things like that. All the Hundred will do is encourage positivity: positive moment of the feet, positive shots, and I think that can only be a good thing,” Anderson said.
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