Agency :
Veteran England fast bowler James Anderson hinted at his return to cricket with franchise league next year, a month after he brought down the curtains on his legendary career.
Anderson believes he can still perform with the new ball and is eager to play in the next edition of the Hundred.
“I feel there is something there, that I still want to play a little bit more,” Anderson said while speaking to the Final Word cricket podcast.
“I watch the Hundred and see the ball swinging around in the first 20 balls and I think: ‘I can do that, I can still do that’. I don’t know if that is a viable option, to maybe see if I could do a job in white-ball cricket. Franchise cricket is something I’ve never done.”
The 42-year-old confirmed he is still keen to “give something back” to Lancashire by playing for them next summer. This decision comes after he retired from Test cricket at Lord’s last month and took on the role of England’s bowling mentor.
“I still feel [playing domestically] is not off the table. The way that my body feels, the way I have been bowling in recent years, I still feel I could potentially have something to offer on that front,” he said.
“My body has at no stage started to feel like it’s 42. I will dive around the tennis court and I will still dive around the field when I’m playing for Burnley CC in five years’ time, until I literally can’t move.
That’s why I want to keep going. I feel I was made to bowl quickly, to be a bowler, so while it’s still functioning, use it,” he added.
Anderson last featured in a T20 in August 2014 for Lancashire before nearly serving out a decade exclusively for red-ball cricket and he has picked up 18 wickets in his 19-match T20I career.
He also not featured in a List A game since 2019 and last played for England at the 2015 ODI World Cup.