English cricket great James Anderson’s record-breaking Test cricket career is set to come to an end later this year following talks with coach Brendon McCullum, The Guardian reported on Friday.
The newspaper said that McCullum recently made a five-day visit to the UK, traveling 17,703km from his home in New Zealand to tell Anderson, over a round of golf, that the Test team is looking to the future.
Anderson, who turns 42 in July, is the most successful pace bowler in Test history with 700 wickets from an England record 197 matches.
Photo: AP
Only two spinners, Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan (800 Test wickets) and Australian Shane Warne are ahead of him on the all-time list of the format’s leading bowlers, with Anderson needing just nine more wickets to overhaul Warne’s tally of 708 Test wickets.
However, Anderson managed just 10 wickets in four of England’s five Tests during a 4-1 series loss in India concluded in March.
He has taken just 15 wickets in his past eight Tests at an expensive average of 50.8 in the past 12 months, with McCullum keen to refresh England’s attack ahead of the 2025-2026 Ashes series in Australia.
It was not clear from The Guardian report if Anderson will be granted a farewell Test or if he has played his last red-ball match for England. England do not play a Test again until July when they begin a three-match series against the West Indies.
That is followed by a Sri Lanka series starts at Manchester’s Old Trafford Cricket Ground, Lancashire hero Anderson’s home ground.
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