Jimmy Anderson is expected to call time on his remarkable career at the age of 44 after being told his contract at Lancashire will not be renewed for next season.
A change of direction is under way at Old Trafford after the club finished second-bottom of Division Two in the County Championship this year and failed to get out of the group stages in both men’s white-ball competitions.
Richard Kenyon has since arrived from Nottinghamshire as Lancashire’s new chief executive and hired Paul Farbrace from Sussex as director of cricket. While Farbrace does not start officially until next month, the pair informed Anderson on Monday that he does not feature in their plans, as first reported by the Times.
Anderson had been on season-by-season contracts with his boyhood club following his retirement from England duty in 2024, and he captained the first team in their most recent campaign. He combined this with 50 wickets at a princely average of 17, even if it could not prevent the club’s lowest finish in the two-division era.
Unless an overseas deal follows this winter, or a hopeful county comes calling, it appears Anderson has played his final game of professional cricket. If so, then he will finish with 1,193 first-class wickets, and more than 400 in limited-over matches, to go with the knighthood he was awarded 12 months ago for services to the sport.
Reports at the end of the season suggested Anderson was unlikely to remain as Lancashire captain but there were also indications that he wished to play on. This was only ever going to hinge on the new leadership’s view, however, after Daniel Gidney stood down as chief executive and Mark Chilton lost his job as director of cricket.
The call has now been made by Chilton’s successor, Farbrace, who was head-hunted to revive the ailing county. Farbrace, a former England assistant coach, had been poised to remain at Sussex on a part-time basis – a new arrangement triggered by their financial difficulties – only to be swayed by the lure of a Test county.
For all that Anderson has raged against his advancing years, the decision is a bold one that has put sentiment to one side. A product of Burnley cricket club, and having made his first-team debut for Red Rose in 2001, there will doubtless be a large section of the membership who would have wanted one more season.
The same went for a significant number of England supporters two years ago when Anderson was ushered into retirement by Rob Key, Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes. With 704 Test dismissals he finished as England’s record wicket-taker and the third highest in history overall – even if he personally remained unsated.
