A tribute to Jimmy

[Arthur Crabtree]

He's got ten more years to pay in before he gets a full state pension. And then it doesn't kick in for another 25 years. He should get a job.

I have respect for sportspeople who retrain and do something socially useful once they retire. Rather than just squeeze the property they built up over their career for the next 50 years. The Robbie Fowler method. Not claiming Anderson is going to do that.

[sussexpob]

He's got ten more years to pay in before he gets a full state pension. And then it doesn't kick in for another 25 years. He should get a job.

I have respect for sportspeople who retrain and do something socially useful once they retire. Rather than just squeeze the property they built up over their career for the next 50 years. The Robbie Fowler method. Not claiming Anderson is going to do that.

At one point, Fowler was punting afternoon instructional sessions on how to become rich for a 1000 quid a pop. I can only imagine his wisdom.... "start with a 50k a week job, then invest it".... great advice to the average punter.

[meninblue]

Wonderful tribute, Sussex. Enjoyed reading it.

It is rare to find a pace bowler with so much success play for that long. Longevity that Jimmy has shown in his cricketing career is amazing imo. He did not bowl at pace of Shane Bond, Dale Steyn, Stuart Broad, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc but still even bowling at the speed he did requires tremendous level of fitness, endurance and strength imo. Had Shane Bond, Dale Steyn and other bowled for so long, more injuries would be on the way and their bowling average and strike rate in tests would have dropped as well. Jimmy would have liked better bowling average and strike rate but he easily made up in the longevity factor. Not easy for anyone to have everything at this international level; only rare players will have the statistics and longevity. One of the best pace bowlers in this and last decade. Also, the other bowlers easily got picked into major T20 franchisees and perhaps opted for lucrative deals from T20 franchisees which they signed. Jimmy on the other hand always opted out of tournaments like IPL and Big Bash and was oriented to test format more than others and defied the trend shown by other cricketers of this and previous decade. To me there is no debate that he gave his complete career to England more than to other countries T20 tournaments. England are lucky to have such a loyal player when their other players were in disputes with the ECB wanting to play IPL and Big Bash and what not. His heart and mind always with England while other England cricketers mind was always in lookout for T20 tournaments. Nothing wrong in that but it is always nice that we had one player who made Test cricket for England his priority and played for so long displaying his skills when he bowled so many overs in test.