Jimmy Anderson: cricket management has served him badly

I woke this morning to a beautiful dry day - windy, but blue skies, and hoped that it was the same at Trent Bridge. No such luck - as so often this so-called summer, the further north you travel, the better the weather, and frankly, Nottinghamshire just isn't far enough north. So while I was wondering whether play would ever get under way in the second Test against India, I had a look at the England squad and realised that there was one guy I hadn't yet investigated for The Googly.

Yes, Jimmy Anderson - and why should this be so? Do I not rate him - or has he just slipped under the radar recently? I think I may have been guilty of writing Jimmy off with injury, and joining the Stuart Broad, bless him, club of supporters. But this is unfair - as Jimmy's performance at Lord's last week proved. Write him off at your peril, and look more at his record of a few years back.

There's no doubt that, after only three One-day games for Lancashire, he was called into the England squad too soon in 2002, but on his international ODI debut at the MCG, he did collect the wicket of Adam Gilchrist. His Test debut was impressive, though against Zimbabwe, he took a five-fer at Lord's in May 2003 and all looked good. At the Oval, against South Africa, his star still waxed strong, but then the promise seemed to be just that: promise. We hardly noticed Jimmy as England toured Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and South Africa in the years 2003 to 2005 - occasionally wandering on with drinks for the lads was about the measure of it.

As everyone else got hurt, we saw Anderson back in Mumbai and play a major part in England's win, but then disaster in Australia - Brisbane was a horror-show for all England players. Some redemption followed in the ODIs but injury struck again before the ICC World Cup - this time a broken finger to add to his collection of woes. Peter Moores (his selection process partially decided by injuries to such as Hoggard and Harmison) picked Jimmy for the first Test against India this summer, and was rewarded for the choice - five for 42 at Lord's last week, and there's another chance this week for Jimmy to cement his place as a premier right-arm, fast-medium bowler in the England side.

And I make no apologies for the picture - there's just not enough Ian Bell on this site!

[Image: Getty] [mimitig]