IIt all started with a phone call. “It’s very unusual for Val to call me. In fact, I don’t think she’s ever done that before or since, it’s just not her style at all,” he said during the evening phone call about the situation.
This is news worth interrupting Antiques Roadshow. Different rare and immeasurable items are about to be unearthed. “Val just said: ‘The lads and Peter have been talking about this lad, he’s a bowler. Have you heard of James Anderson?
“I actually didn’t,” Stanworth replied. She said, “Would you mind coming down and seeing him?”
Stanworth played for Lancashire in the 1980s and has since been a coach for the county and the England and Wales Cricket Board. At the time he was studying at Lancashire College. The bolt-from-the-blue phone call convinced him it was a prospect worth investigating.
“We had just started an under-17s team at Lancs. So I just said to Val: ‘Of course, I’ll come down.’ The whole conversation was suitably low-key, even if the lad in question did possess a special set of skills. He will continue to improve over a long career. These skills will make him a nightmare for batsmen.
Valerie’s sons David and Michael have been friends with Anderson since they were kids hanging out on the edge of the Burnley club’s boundaries. Both became county cricketers. David remembers the circumstances that led his mother to make this fateful decision. “Burnley had a lot of senior players leave the club in the mid-1990s; we went from having a good squad to losing four or five really established players.
The Brown boy’s father Peter, 44 at the time, was subsequently named captain of the first team. “He said: ‘I’ll do it, but only if I can pick some kids.'” Peter Brown was given the freedom to inject some youth into the first team, and the team would develop a wealth of young talent, many of whom went on to play professionally. Contest. “A few years later, Jimmy played his first game during my dad’s final season,” David said.
As a teenager, Anderson could “hit an absolute Jaffas ball, fast, late in the swing,” but he was still raw. The Lancashire League is tough and uncompromising. Young Anderson failed to get a trial with Lancashire’s under-16s. The next spring, a different Jimmy would emerge.
“He was 16 and he grew a little bit over the winter,” David said. “He comes to the indoor nets and bowls so noticeably faster that when you line up to bat with him you think: ‘I really don’t like this!'”
That summer, Anderson began collecting scalps from some of the biggest names in the league. “Jiminique Roger Harper [the former West Indies Test player] First ball.
Stanworth was impressed by what he saw and heard from the teenage hurler and invited him to Old Trafford. “He was polite but barely said a word.”
Although Anderson had an unconventional move in which his head fell off during delivery, Stanworth said he basically played the game on his own terms. “He had these incredible natural attributes and it was on a steep upward trajectory over the next few years.”
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In December 2002, the 20-year-old Anderson was selected by Nasser Hussain and made his one-day international debut in Australia. A few months later, he beat Pakistan to the top spot in the World Cup. That summer he made his debut at Lord’s. More than two decades later and 700 wickets later, his final Test match was about to be played at the same venue.
David and Michael Brown and their parents will be there. Interestingly, everyone involved was particularly keen not to be seen receiving any credit for their role in the Anderson saga. “I don’t want people to think I’m bragging,” Stanworth said. “Being with Jimmy is like a gold nugget dropped into your lap.”
How will they feel when Anderson reaches his peak and final effort at Lord’s? “It will certainly be exciting; watching him play for England has become a big part of many people’s lives at Burnley Cricket Club and beyond.
“You almost get a little bored,” David said. “You automatically think: ‘Oh, yes, Jim is going to play in the Test match.'” Now it’s hitting us all: ‘Oh, actually, that’s going to be this Last time.
“It still feels surreal,” Michael said, “that he became the best pitcher we’ve ever had. Coming from such humble beginnings, you wouldn’t believe it.” Both agreed: “What he accomplished is unparalleled. . “
The final decision rests with Valerie Brown. She was keen to avoid the limelight, but her lads eventually appreciated her one word; more than a quarter of a century after that brief landline call, it arrived in the form of a text message. “I never thought at the time he would become England’s greatest ever fast bowler. I can’t take any credit… but I’m glad I made that call.
So do many others. Although Anderson’s 260 (and counting) test victims might wish the Brown family’s phone had stayed on the line.
