written by Atharva Jori
“I’ll be honest, retirement was not in my head,” Anderson, who had taken 704 wickets in 188 Tests and currently sits at third spot in leading wicket-takers in Test cricket behind Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne, told The Times. “I was still bowling as well as I ever had, and my body was in good shape. I was looking forward to the Ashes. All sport needs young people coming onto the scene, but you have to balance that with age and experience. It’s difficult. I’d been told that as long as I was good enough to warrant a place in the team, and fit enough, they’d keep picking me… but then they changed their mind. I did see their point. I wasn’t angry, though my wife was; probably still is. But then she’s always been my biggest supporter, my biggest help throughout my career,”
Two months before he retired from international cricket, Anderson was told by ECB Managing director Rob Key, McCullum and Stokes about him not being in their scheme of things. Anderson did spend some time with the England team after retirement as a mentor for a couple of international tours.
“I retired from international cricket last year, but not entirely willingly. I had a meeting with the captain, coach and director of the England cricket team in April, and they said they wanted to move in a different direction, and bring in some younger guys ahead of the Ashes. They kept me on in a team coach/mentor capacity, but I felt I still had an itch to scratch, and more cricket to play while my body was still able to. So I spoke to Lancashire and they got me on board,” added Anderson.
Written by Atharva Jori Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field, at the centre of which is a 22-yard (20-metre; 66-foot) pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails (small sticks) balanced on three stumps. Two players from the batting team, the striker and nonstriker, stand in front of either wicket holding bats, while one player from the fielding team, the bowler, bowls the ball toward the striker's wicket from the opposite end of the pitch. The striker's goal is to hit the bowled ball with the bat and then switch places with the nonstriker, with the batting team scoring one run for each of these exchanges. Runs are also scored when the ball reaches the boundary of the field or when the ball is bowled illegally. The fielding team aims to prevent runs by dismissing batters (so they are "out"). Dismissal can occur in various ways, including being bowled (when the ball hits the striker's wicket and dislodge...

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