FROM THE ARCHIVE: James Anderson on playing until the 2019 Ashes

In April 2015, James Anderson surpassed Ian Botham as England’s leading wicket-taker in Tests. Only months shy of his 33rd birthday, many thought that the fast bowler would struggle to go on and continue to breaking records...

In April 2015, James Anderson surpassed Ian Botham as England’s leading wicket-taker in Tests. Only months shy of his 33rd birthday, many thought that the fast bowler would struggle to go on and continue to breaking records.

It became one of the biggest questions in English cricket - how long would the great Jimmy Anderson go on for? Quite amazingly, he has gone on to surpass Glenn McGrath’s total of 563 and most prolific fast bowler in the history of Test cricket.

In July 2015, Alec Swann asked him what it was like to break Beefy’s record, and just how long he thought he could continue for at the top of the game.

Often the minutiae of a performance becomes lost in the overall experience.

The details, those snippets of time that will be used to define a particular event down the line, can become a blur to the protagonist.

A delivery or boundary here or there may lodge in the memory, and not always the obvious, but do not count on it.

Yet ask Jimmy Anderson about the few seconds which saw him overtake Sir Ian Botham at the top of the all-time England Test wicket-taker’s pile and he will have no trouble sharing a recollection.

^{Ian Botham congratulates James Anderson on beating his record}

"I remember it clearly. We were struggling because they were batting pretty well and it was fairly flat. Me and Stuart Broad were chatting about what to bowl during my spell and he said, ‘What about bowling some leg-cutters?’

"I bowled one which was a bit short and he then said, ‘try and bowl it as full as you can’ and the next ball it got the edge. It was a difficult catch - I know that.

"Cooky [Alastair Cook] said it took an age, like it was never going to get there.

"It was on my mind but not too much before. It was my 100th Test, which was a big thing for me and something I really wanted to enjoy.

"The record was there but during the game, the end I bowled most of my overs, there was a big screen and every five minutes it flashed up a list. It was hard to put out of my mind but it was definitely a relief when I got there."

^{Alastair Cook and James Anderson went on to win the Ashes that summer}

Plenty of column inches have been dedicated to the hectic few months ahead - 17 Tests in under a year from the start of the West Indies series - yet if this is of concern to Anderson, a lapse into ‘one game at a time’ football managerial cliche suggests the opposite.

"I don’t really look at the schedule a long way ahead. A lot of other people do and it is a busy year but there’s no point thinking about the South Africa trip at the end of the year as we’ve had two Tests against New Zealand to worry about and I just want to be fit for those and go from there.

"From a playing view I don’t look that far ahead, but because I’m centrally contracted the likelihood is that if I’m fit I’ll go to South Africa - providing my form’s decent. You do think, ‘It’ll be nice to have Christmas there this winter.’ It’s more about the lifestyle, where you’re going to be and when."

^{There was a hectic schedule ahead of Anderson}

And the retirement rumours that will only gather pace regardless of form or fitness?

"I’ve been asked about it [retirement] a reasonable amount and chatting to Mooresy [Peter Moores] before he got let go, we were talking about one-day cricket going forward so people have started thinking about it for you.

"But I don’t see it like that. I feel fit at the moment and I’d like to think that I could go on for another four years but it might be 18 months.

"Firstly, you don’t know how your body’s going to cope with bowling, you don’t know the situation with the team, your form, the direction the team want to go in and whether they want to bring a load of young lads in.

"We’ve got a few lads who are serious bowlers so it’s up to me to stay ahead of them and keep them out of the team."