British fast pitcher James Anderson said he was thinking of retiring from cricket after being knocked out of the West Indies earlier this year.
39-year-old swimmer and fellow veteran Stuart Broad were controversially omitted in a series of three games in the Caribbean, which ended in a 0-1 defeat and prompted Joe Root to step down as captain.
New Testskipper Ben Stokes has said that the two fast pitchers will always be on the 11th team if fit but being dropped from the team has Anderson wondering if he should call it a day.
“I definitely questioned it,” he told reporters at an event in Leicester. “I asked myself, ‘do I want to continue?’ And you start questioning other things when the same thing happens. Is that something that I did in the group?”
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Anderson, England’s top Testwicket player with 640 victims, said that after some time to reflect on the situation, he realized he wanted to keep playing.
“I think the longer time goes by, the more I want to play,” he added. “I’ve talked to my family and they see it as I did… I still have a lot to offer the game whether it’s Lancashire or England.”
Anderson also said that he was not disappointed with Root.
“I spoke to him before he announced that he was stepping down. So there is still a lot of respect between the two of us and there is no animosity.”
England have made sweeping changes to its establishment over the past few weeks, with all-round Stokes taking over as captain and Brendon McCullum coming aboard as Testcoach.
Anderson said of the date with McCullum: “It was really exciting. “He always wants positive selections. I’m sure he’ll bring that from his coaching standpoint as well. With him and Ben, we’ll never back down.”
Anderson is expected to be called back for the home series against New Zealand when the squad is announced late on Wednesday but he will not belittle anything.
“Until that team is selected, I won’t count on anything. My job is to try and prove that I’m in good form, bring it to Lancashire… that’s all there is to it. I’m preoccupied.”
