England's leading Test wicket taker and the finest swing bowler of his era
CricketJimmy Anderson took 704 Test wickets. For context, no other seamer in history has come close.
The Burnley Express made his England debut in 2003 as a raw, outswing-only youngster and retired in July 2024 as the most successful fast bowler the game has ever seen. Across 188 Tests he out-thought, out-lasted, and out-swung every other seamer of his generation, taking 32 five-wicket hauls and bowling England to Ashes wins, series victories in India and Australia, and the 2010/11 whitewash down under.
What made him unusual was the reinvention. The young Anderson bowled fast and got carted in the 2006/07 Ashes. The older Anderson, past 35, was still the first name on the team sheet because he had turned himself into cricket's most complete operator: swing both ways, reverse at will, wobble seam on flat decks, and a knowledge of each batter's weak spot that bordered on forensic.
Off the field he was private, famously reluctant with the media, and spent two decades quietly terrorising county and international batters without ever chasing the celebrity that his statistics could have bought. He retired on his own terms at Lord's, still taking wickets, and has since moved into coaching and punditry.
At Steam Wine Bar, Anderson brings two decades of Ashes war stories, a masterclass in the craft of seam bowling, and the kind of dry northern humour that only makes sense after 704 wickets.
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