They came in their thousands to witness outstanding fast bowler James Anderson’s last day of Test cricket and thousands were still there at Lord’s long after England had inflicted an innings-thrashing on the West Indies.
A huge throng of spectators massed in front of the Pavilion, hoping for one last glimpse of their hero, with an entire generation of England fans never having known a time without Anderson playing Test cricket given that the 41-year-old’s international career spans two decades.
He duly obliged by walking out onto the England dressing-room balcony.
Anderson finished his England international career with a thumping win over West Indies in the first match of the three Test series.
The swing bowler then waved goodbye for one final time at the ‘Home of Cricket’, with Lord’s also the scene of his Test debut in 2003, after Joshua Da Silva had become the last of 704 wickets at this level — all secured with an action little changed from his early days.
No other fast bowler has taken as many Test wickets, with only celebrated spinners Shane Warne (708 wickets) and Muttiah Muralitharan (800) ahead of Anderson in the all-time list.
“It’s been quite emotional… the reaction from the crowd was pretty special,” said Anderson. “I’m really proud because playing for 20-odd years is an incredible effort, especially for a fast bowler, and I’m just happy that I’ve made it this far.”
England and Wales Cricket Board chairman Richard Thompson described Anderson as “quite simply the best Test pace bowler there has ever been”.
In one way, he could hardly be accused of recency bias given Anderson has played 188 Tests, a testament to his stamina as well as skill, with only India’s Sachin Tendulkar, who as a batsman had a far less physically demanding role, having made more appearances (200 games) in the format.
But was Thompson letting patriotic sentiment cloud his judgement?
Anderson’s career has coincided with the advent of England central contracts. That meant he was not required to combine Test duty with playing county cricket to anything like the same extent as previous generations of England fast bowlers.
For example, England fast-bowling great Fred Trueman — the first man to take 300 Test wickets — averaged 21.57 runs per wicket in his 67 Tests, while also bowling thousands of overs for Yorkshire, at a time in the 1950s and 1960s when there were only six nations competing in the five-day game compared to today’s 12.
Anderson averaged 26.45, with nothing like the same workload at Lancashire.
And there have been plenty of truly great fast bowlers from other countries, with West Indies alone fielding several outstanding quicks, including Malcolm Marshall, who took 376 wickets in 81 Tests at 20.94 while also being a mainstay of Hampshire’s attack.
But there is no denying Anderson, a bowler who relied more on his great ability to generate late movement, both through the air and off the pitch, rather than sheer pace, deserves his place in the conversation.
As a team man, however, Anderson has few equals and his reaction to missing out on a fairytale finish to his Test career spoke volumes.
Anderson had a chance to take the match-clinching wicket, as happened for Stuart Broad when his long-time new-ball partner bowed out against Australia last year, but instead dropped a return catch offered by Gudakesh Motie.
Instead, it was debutant Gus Atkinson who ended proceedings on Friday, with the Surrey fast bowler finishing with match figures of 12-106, eclipsing Anderson’s career-best haul of 11-71.
“Gus actually apologised to him for taking that last wicket” said England captain Ben Stokes.
“He’s someone who loves to see other people do well. I’m sure he’d have loved to have that fairytale ending that Broady got last year but, for him, seeing a young lad come in and take 12 wickets on debut, he’d have really enjoyed that as well. He’s a great player, a great person and a great man.”