“We’re very Grateful the West Indies are Coming Over Here” Says James Anderson

The West Indies cricket team has arrived in England for a three-match Test series. Though the series is scheduled to start from July 8, the team arrived early to serve the 14 days quarantine period in the view of the coronavirus pandemic. The dedication shown by the West Indies impressed the England bowler James Anderson as he heaped praises on the Indies player for making this ‘scary’ decision. 

Anderson termed traveling to Britain as a scary decision as the UK has been adversely affected by the novel coronavirus. More than 293K people have been tested positive for the COVID-19 while nearly 41,481 have lost their lives in UK. As a result, ECB will be taking various precautionary measures to ensure the safety of the players and support staff. All three test matches against West Indies will be in a bio-secure environment without the spectators. However, West Indies players like Darren Bravo, Shimron Hetmyer, and Keemo Paul turned down the offer to travel.

Talking about playing cricket after a span of almost three months, Anderson revealed, “It’s great for the game. Brilliant, that we’re closing in on getting some test cricket played after a decent layoff. From our point of view, we’re very grateful the West Indies are coming over here. With what’s going on in the world, I can imagine it’s a scary decision for a lot of them, for all of them, to make the journey over.”

I managed to tick over quite well: James Anderson

The last year has been tough for the pacer James Anderson as he had suffered many injuries during this period. Anderson could bowl only 74 overs since last August. He also had to leave the tour of South Africa midway owing to a rib problem. He had to make a comeback with England’s tour of Sri Lanka but the tour got canceled due to the rise in COVID-19 cases in the world. 

Anderson has been training since May-end while following the social distancing norms. On being asked about his training, James said, “I managed to tick over quite well during the lockdown. Luckily, I’ve got enough space to fit half my run-up in on my drive,” 

The 37-year-old added, “There are concerns we’re not going to have had any competitive cricket before that first test match. We’ve got three tests in quick succession. So there are obviously things we need to look at in terms of workloads and whether we play all three as bowlers or whether we rotate.”