THE GOOGLY: WAS ANDERSON'S SLEDGE INSPIRED BY ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES?

HUW TURBERVILL: The England fast bowler didn't stop calling Michael Hussey 'Dave' during the 2010/11 Ashes

James Anderson was a man possessed in the 2010/11 Ashes.

Before he had been mild-mannered and it feels as if, ever since, he has has gone back to quiet Jimmy, the man who does his talking through his swing bowling.

But that winter he appeared to become Angry Anderson (not the Australia pop singer but England’s sledger-in-chief). A tearaway. England’s answer to Jeff Thomson or Glenn McGrath.

He particularly seemed to have it in for it Mike Hussey, Mr Cricket, that great gent of the Australia team.

It may have been because Hussey was the hosts’ best player. He made 570 runs in the series at 63.33, a shining light as Australia lost 3-1.

Graeme Swann laughed when it was put to him that his great mate Anderson was “nasty" to Hussey, though.

^{Jimmy Anderson gets in Mike Hussey's ear during the 2010/11 Ashes series}

"He called him Dave Hussey,” Swann said. “The entire series. Every single ball. ‘Shot Dave, well left Dave, morning Dave’. In the end Mike says: ‘I’m Mike Hussey.’”

Now it is widely assumed that Anderson called him this to wind him up, because Mike Hussey’s younger brother, also a very fine batsman who played for Nottinghamshire and ODIs for Australia, is called David.

But maybe we are missing the true story. That Anderson is, in fact, a massive fan of Only Fools and Horses.

In the long-running and hugely popular comedy show written by John Sullivan, the dim-witted character Trigger, a roadsweeper played by the late Roger Lloyd-Pack, could never get Rodney’s name right. He kept calling him Dave.

Is that the more obvious explanation for Anderson? 

As Del Boy would say, “You know it makes sense…”

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