ENGLAND’S SUMMER of international cricket began at Lord’s on June 2nd with the first of three Tests (ie, five-day matches) against New Zealand. The team has a new captain, all-rounder Ben Stokes, and a new coach, Brendon McCullum (once, as it happens, one of the Kiwis’ finest players). Among the new management’s first moves was to recall two veteran fast bowlers, 39-year-old James Anderson and 35-year-old Stuart Broad, who had been left out of the winter tour to the West Indies (and who are pictured together above). Mr Anderson and Mr Broad—the former, a dark-haired, glowering metronome; the latter a blond, boyish assassin—are England’s most successful-ever bowlers and have operated in tandem for 15 years. However, they were discarded when the selectors opted to “refresh” the Test squad and “give some impetus with an influx of new players”. England lost in the Caribbean and evidence suggests that the team was too hasty to discard their two talismans.
The longevity of Mr Anderson and Mr Broad is unusual. Bowling, particularly fast bowling, is hard work. Injuries are common, general wear and tear—on knees, backs, sides and shoulders—even more so, as is a gradual loss of pace. In the history of Test cricket, stretching over 145 years and nearly 2,500 matches, only 12 fast bowlers in the world have managed to play 100 times. Mr Anderson is playing his 170th match, Mr Broad his 153rd. Staggeringly, Mr Anderson has taken part in almost one-sixth of all England’s Tests.
However, their enduring excellence is undeniable. And as they have got older they have got better, continuing to take batters’ scalps while giving away fewer runs. In his whole Test career Mr Anderson has taken 640 wickets, at an average of 26.6 runs each and giving away 2.8 runs per over (a set of six balls). Since turning 30, he has taken 372 wickets for 23.9 runs apiece at an economy rate of 2.6 (and he’s got tighter still since his 35th birthday). The same goes for Mr Broad. In all he has taken 537 wickets, at an average of 27.8 and an economy rate of 2.9. In his 30s he has 192 wickets at 26.5 and 2.7.
There have always been athletes capable of exceptionally long careers. Stanley Matthews played top-division football after his 50th birthday. Martina Navratilova captured her final Grand Slam tennis title at 49. Tom Brady won a Super Bowl at 43. Mr Anderson and Mr Broad could be part of this club, but they are more likely to illustrate a modern trend. Academic research has found that elite footballers are getting older, with the average age of players in the UEFA Champions League rising from 24.9 years in the early 1990s to 26.5 in the late 2010s. In men’s tennis, long dominated by Novak Djokovic (now 35), Roger Federer (40, and only recently fading) and Rafael Nadal (also 35, and with a chance of winning his 14th French Open this weekend), the average age of the top 100 players climbed from 24 in the mid-1980s to more than 28 by the end of the 2010s. The equivalent figures for women are 22 and 26.
There are some obvious reasons why the best players are peaking later. The understanding and application of sport science has grown enormously, enabling players to take better care of themselves. Salaries at the top end have also soared, which may encourage the pursuit of a longer career (though some resist the lure). More money also means players can afford to be selective in how often they play. Mr Anderson has not played a limited-overs (ie, one-day) game for England since 2015, Mr Broad since 2016.
The willingness of the pair to focus on Test cricket makes England’s approach towards them all the more puzzling. It is as if the team’s management is so concerned about the fact the team will one day have to cope without their talismanic duo that they have begun the succession process before they needed to. Only one of the 12 fast bowlers England have picked in Test cricket over the past two years has taken anywhere near as many wickets as Mr Anderson and Mr Broad while being so stingy with runs, and he is injured. Indeed, most have also lacked the veterans’ durability: their recall was made more straightforward by the absence of eight younger bowlers with various fitness problems.
Mr Anderson turns 40 next month. A quickie taking wickets at the height of his powers in his fifth decade is unprecedented in modern cricket. But there’s no doubt Mr Anderson deserves his chance to do so.
By The Economist
