A strapping, genuinely quick fast bowler, James Anderson had played only three one-day games for Lancashire in the 2002 season - he'd played more for his club Burnley - before being called into England's VB Series squad the following winter as cover for Andy Caddick, following an impressive stint at the Academy in Adelaide. An amazing 10-over stint in century heat at Adelaide, which cost just 12 runs, earned him a place in the 2003 World Cup, where he produced a matchwinning spell against Pakistan, before suffering a sobering last-over disaster against Australia. At this stage, however, his star was very much in the ascendancy, and when selected for the first Test of the new home season, he took five wickets in his debut innings almost to order. An ODI hat-trick - the first by an English bowler - followed against South Africa at The Oval, but from that moment on, his fortunes began to wane. South Africa's Test team made his new go-faster hairstyle seem a little foolish, and though he retained his place for the winter tours to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in 2003-04 and South Africa the following year, he was reduced to the most peripheral of net-bowling roles - and a shadow of his former self on his rare appearances in the middle. He seemed well out of the frame until injuries led to his recall at Mumbai in 2005-06 where he played a key part in England's success. But no sooner had he returned home than he broke down with a stress fracture of the lower back, ruling him out of the 2006 season. A see-saw winter followed in Australia - he was thrown back in at the deep end for the series opener at Brisbane and suffered acutely for his lack of match practice as England were thumped by 277 runs. By the one-day series, however, he had rediscovered some of his best form, only to be rested as a precaution ahead of the World Cup. Shortly before England's opening match he broke his finger and although he played through the pain he was never at his best. He wasn't alone in that, but not for the first time the way he had been managed was in question. He and Stuart Broad spearheaded a young England attack in place of the out-of-form Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard for the second Test of England's series against New Zealand in the winter of 2008, and it appeared to inspire him. 5 for 73 helped England square the series, but it was yet another Jekyll-and-Hyde performance as his old waywardness returned with depressing inevitability in the final Test.
Rob Smyth April 2008

NBC Denis Compton Award 2002

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