Jimmy Anderson does not deserve to limp into retirement... it's time for England's greatest to call it quits

SIMON HUGHES: None of us wants to see Jimmy bowling 77mph nip-backers with the keeper stood up. Jimmy the Dobber. Please no

This is going to sound harsh. Jimmy Anderson should retire from all cricket. Now. 

Why? Well firstly his body is telling him something. It is saying it has had enough. Ok it’s only a calf injury but it has been lingering for a while now. The effort to finally shake that off is debilitating in itself at the age of 37. But the associated strain might well cause something else to go. 

Although Anderson has kept himself supremely fit - mainly with a lot of light stretching - it will only get harder. After your mid-thirties you lose a kilo of muscle every year. He will actually have to start doing some weight training. He won’t like that.

But there’s another more important reason why it would be a good idea to quit. He is still fit (in a general sense). The more bowling he does from now on, the more damage he will do to his knees, hips and ankles (remember you put at least six times your body weight through your joints every time you try to bowl fast). 

Surely he does not want to end up with knees like mine (which bow out almost enough to let a canoe through). He deserves to enjoy his post-playing days with golf, a few celebrity matches, perhaps going on a cycling tour of Burgundy.

^{Anderson has been ruled out of the remainder of the Ashes}

Essentially he has time - at the age of 37 - to properly forge a second career - be it coaching, broadcasting or, er…wine-making. Or all three. He will still have the energy and stimulation to develop and improve. The most successful coaches and broadcasters mostly retired from the game in their mid-thirties. It is a great age. You have experience and knowledge but still the appetite to learn. Past 40 and grumpiness and lethargy can set in.  

What’s the alternative? He could carry on, of course he could. But he’ll get gradually slower. You don’t notice it happening, but it is only natural. The ping and snap of your bowling action gradually decrease, like fraying elastic. 

One day a ropey lower-order batsman he used to get out for fun will pull his back-of-a-length delivery for four and lean smugly on his bat. Or another will shimmy up the pitch and bunt his probing outswinger back over his head (there’s no respect these days). This will prompt that fateful thing - the keeper coming up to the stumps. None of us wants to see Jimmy bowling 77mph nip-backers with the keeper stood up. Jimmy the Dobber. Please no.  

Remember the Carly Simon song - Nobody Does it Better. That will be Jimmy’s epitaph. No one has swung the ball both ways with more control and deception and no one ever will. No paceman will overtake his tally of 575 Test wickets (Stuart Broad needs another 117 - that will take him three years at least). He is the best swing and seam bowler there has ever been. 

He has nothing left to achieve or prove. Oh, and you don’t get knighthoods until you retire from Tests...