Former England cricketer Mark Butcher on Thursday opened up on his first impression of legendary pacer James Anderson, who is currently playing his final international match during the first Test against West Indies at Lord’s following over two decades of service to English cricket. Anderson is playing his final international gamer as England take on the West Indies in the series opener from July 10. With 701 wickets in 187 Test matches, Anderson currently stands third among the highest wicket-takers in the longest format and is the first among all fast bowlers.

Speaking about a young Anderson, who made his international debut back in 2002 and played his first Test against Zimbabwe in 2003 at Lord’s, Butcher, who also featured in Anderson’s debut Test, said during the Wisden Cricket Monthly podcast, that the youngster’s coloured, spiked hair were the only “loud thing” about him, otherwise, the pacer was very “quiet and shy”.

“The hair was kind of the only loud thing about him, really. Very, very quiet, very, very shy, kept himself to himself. And of course, he was incredibly young as well. So barring the hair, you would barely have noticed him,” recalled Butcher.

Recalling his bowling against Australia in an ODI at Adelaide early in his career, Butcher said that Anderson had “terrific control and movement”.

“The fact that 21 years later, he is still doing it is something that nobody would have been able to have predicted from back then,” he added.

Butcher said that Anderson was a lot quicker early in his career and he made up for any loss in his pace with his incredible skill with the ball.

“Going back to that Test match in 2003 (against Zimbabwe), he bowled some incredible deliveries, you know. Turning batters into an S, starting the ball on and outside the leg stump and hitting the top of off, that type of thing, all at a really good lick. We felt as though, wow, you have got a really talented kid here. But of course, he was stick thin and very, very young. And so the thought was perhaps that he is probably going to snap in two at some point and never to be seen again. That did happen, but the never to be seen again part did not,” he concluded.

He made his debut in the Test format against Zimbabwe at The Lord’s in 2003, and he will bid farewell to fans as a player at the same venue. His 6/17 against Pakistan in the first Test in 2010 at Trent Bridge still echoes the prowess of his remarkable career.

He has also taken 269 wickets in 194 ODIs for England and 18 wickets in 19 T20Is.

Coming to the match, England won the toss and elected to field first. West Indies lost wickets at regular intervals and never really got a breather. Mikyle Louis (27 in 58 balls), Kavem Hodge (24 in 48 balls) and Alick Athanaze (23 in 56 balls) did the bulk of scoring as Windies was skittled out for 121 runs in 41.4 overs.

Besides the seven-fer by Atkinson (7/45), James Anderson, skipper Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes also got a wicket each.

In their first innings, England has crossed the 300-run mark and have a 200-plus run-lead in the game, with Jamie Smith and Chris Woakes at the crease.

Teams:

West Indies (Playing XI): Kraigg Brathwaite(c), Mikyle Louis, Kirk McKenzie, Alick Athanaze, Kavem Hodge, Joshua Da Silva(w), Jason Holder, Gudakesh Motie, Alzarri Joseph, Shamar Joseph, Jayden Seales

England (Playing XI): Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes(c), Jamie Smith(w), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, James Anderson.

England great James Anderson will join the team’s backroom staff as a fast-bowling mentor when he retires from Test cricket following next week’s series opener against the West Indies at Lord’s. The 41-year-old is the first seamer and only third bowler to have taken 700 Test wickets after spinners Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan. Anderson, however, has decided to end his Test career after England made it clear they wanted to move on ahead of the 2025/26 Ashes. But England managing director Rob Key told reporters on Monday: “After the Lord’s Test, Jimmy will continue in our set-up, and he’ll help a bit more as a mentor.”

Key added: “He has got so much to offer English cricket. We don’t want to see that go.

“When we asked him, he was keen. He is going to have a lot of options. English cricket would be very lucky if he chooses to stay in the game.”

Anderson is currently playing for Lancashire against Nottinghamshire in the County Championship at Southport, but his first-class future remains uncertain.

“What he does with Lancashire will probably work out after the Lord’s Test,” said Key.

England have included three uncapped players in their squad for the first two matches of a three-Test series against the West Indies, with Jamie Smith selected to keep wicket ahead of both Jonny Bairstow and Ben Foakes.

The 23-year-old Smith averages over 50 in the County Championship this season and celebrated his Test call-up by making exactly 100 for Surrey against Essex on Sunday.

He usually plays as a specialist batsman for Surrey with Foakes keeping wicket for the reigning county champions.

“Sometimes you’re selecting people for what they’re going to be as well, and where you think they can progress to,” said Key.

“It’s very much the start for Jamie Smith. We feel he’s going to be a fantastic international cricketer.”

Key, asked how Smith would cope with the demands of keeping wicket for 90 overs a day in a Test match when he is not a regular behind the stumps, said he had consulted several former England wicketkeepers in Chris Read, James Foster and Alec Stewart — Smith’s boss at Surrey.

“Some of the guys have been the best keepers in the country… We use them a lot really and we trust a lot of their opinions,” Key explained.

– ‘Wrong direction’ –

Key added Bairstow, 34, “needs to get back to what he was a couple of years ago”, when the Yorkshireman hit six Test centuries in 2022.

Bairstow, however, has struggled lately after nearly a year out of the game following a horrifying leg break in a freak accident on a golf course.

“Generally his form, in all formats, has just been going slightly in the wrong direction,” said 45-year-old former England batsman Key.

“It’s an arduous task being a keeper and you want someone who can back up series after series. We weren’t convinced that Jonny would be able to do that, especially at the stage of his career that he’s at.”

Key was speaking for the first time since defending champions England’s defeat by India in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup.

England won just one of their four matches against fellow Test sides during a tournament in the Caribbean and the United States following a woeful defence of their 50-over World Cup title in India last year.

Those reverses have called into question the positions of England white-ball captain Jos Buttler and coach Matthew Mott.

But Key said he would take his time regarding their future ahead of England’s next white-ball series against Australia in September.

“I’m not going to rush anything on that,” he said.

“At times I thought we showed how good we were and at times we were inconsistent. We’ll let the dust settle on the World Cup and then move forward from there.”

File photo of James Anderson.© AFP