Outliers are annoying. You would be hoping to get a smooth slope. But then one reading decides it’s too grand to stick to normalcy, too royal for the peasants surrounding it, too chaste for the crowd of sinners it’s stuck in. And so it surges above others, so much that it no longer resembles the set it was originally a part of. Like hydrogen resting serenely in a group full of metallic elements. Like Venus rebelliously rotating in a direction opposite to its counterparts in the solar system. Like ice deciding to float in its liquid form. Like James Anderson playing cricket at an age cricketers (let alone pacers) either take comms box as their abode or denounce everything to live a life away from razzmatazz.
Anomalous. All of them. But Jimmy is a different case even among outliers. He is someone who has been a rebel by choice. Someone who has gatecrashed into the club after wrestling the bouncers down. He now bows out of the game he dearly loved after nearly 21 years. But it’s not exactly bowing out when your boss calls you in and tells you how good the company will be with you out, is it?
Jimmy knows he has been avoiding the monster under his bed for a long time, way longer than many have but it had to end somewhere. He also knows and has known for a long time, that no one could ever have decided that somewhere except him. Even half-heartedly, he has walked out when he was ready to.
What’s so special about James Anderson?
Swing, hairstyles, sledging, persistence, English media’s incredible mind power, or the theory that he has access to the Fountain of Youth. What makes James Anderson so special? When you come to think of it, he has only taken 26 wickets in 11 Test matches he has played since the start of last year.
Chris Woakes has taken 6 wickets less than him in nearly three times fewer matches. And that, guys, is exactly what makes Anderson a big thing. That little ‘fewer’ right there. That he was a pacer who made it to almost all Test matches England has played since his debut isn’t something that can be disregarded just because the younger lot is drawing more blood than him lately.
You can’t fool the world for 20 years merely using your rad hairstyles or PR campaigns. Taking 704 wickets in the longest format requires a great deal of talent, skill, and eloping from injuries. He did it all. He braved through every fast bowling nightmare, which is as special as special can be.
41-years young Jimmy
He still believes he has a few decades years’ worth of bowling left in him. Even when Gus Atkinson has shown he is capable of rolling his arm over with a freshly picked cherry. Even with Chris Woakes present to guide the upcoming youngsters. The sanest, too, never believed he would really bid farewell.
Many can not even recall now how the world looked like when Jimmy was not bowling first overs. It’s like waking up one day to see the sky has turned purple. Or finding the spider in the corner of your room gone. You might have forgotten its existence for days. But now that it is gone, that empty nook stares wide at you.
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