(MENAFN- Gulf Times) There are no intruders in the 400 club. It may be mildly surprising that Harbhajan Singh is there and the absence of so many great West Indians of the 80s is a bit odd € they tended to share the wickets around in a spirit of cooperation. But it is hard to deny that anyone on that list is anything other than a true titan of the game, especially if he bowls fast.
Jimmy Anderson cruised down the hill at Headingley and dismissed Martin Guptill with his eighth delivery of the day to seal his membership. The process was so much smoother than when he bowled Mark Vermeulen of Zimbabwe with the last ball of his third over in Test cricket at Lord's 12 years ago.
Anderson would take four more in that innings, finishing with 5 for 73. In those days there were streaks in his hair and he seldom looked where he was trying to propel the ball. Now he does take the precaution of glimpsing down the track though his penchant for an odd haircut has not entirely disappeared.
Anderson was raw back in 2003 but his talent was obvious. Yet it would take him five years before he became a regular Test cricketer for England?. It was coach Peter Moores and captain Michael Vaughan in New Zealand in 2008 who decided that the time had come after a bad Test defeat in Hamilton.
They took a major decision € they dropped old stalwarts Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard, and they promoted Anderson along with Stuart Broad. Once again Anderson responded to an elevation in his status with 5 for 73. Ever since then he has taken that new ball for England.
Later that year Jacques Kallis would become his 100th wicket. Peter Siddle, whom he has dismissed more than any other batsman (though he might prefer to dwell on the fact that he has dispatched both Sachin Tendulkar and Michael Clarke nine times) was his 200th in December 2010.
New Zealander Peter Fulton was his 300th in May 2013 and now Guptill has the dubious honour of being his 400th victim just two years later.
Where will it all end? Actually, this may be a premature question. Anderson is 32. He has worshipped his body a little more diligently than one or two of England's previous record-holders. There is no suggestion of decline; he is as fit as ever and it may well be that Anderson withdraws or is withdrawn from the rigours of one-day cricket from now onwards € that might enhance longevity.
Moreover he is helped by the fact that he does not have to bowl fast to prevail at the highest level. He moves the ball and provided it is travelling in excess of 80mph he will remain a handful for international batsmen. Anderson could well bowl for England for another two years, which might translate into another 100 Test wickets.
That means that he could soon become a senior member of that 400 club. Ignore the spinners € which takes away Muttiah Muralitharan (800), Shane Warne (708) and Anil Kumble (619) as well as Harbhajan (413) € and there are some great fast bowlers in his sights.
He could well skip pass Curtly Ambrose (405) in this match. He should overtake his fellow Lancastrian Wasim Akram (414) during the Ashes series. Within striking distance are Shaun Pollock (421), Sir Richard Hadlee (431) and Kapil Dev (434).
Of these Hadlee strikes a chord. Kiwis think this something of a sacrilege but Anderson resembles Hadlee more than anyone else on that list. Both recognised the benefit of not running miles up to the crease; both possess magical wrists, which could control the seam with the delicacy of an expert helmsman.
Hadlee was probably quicker when he needed to be and was unrelenting but even he was unlikely to produce such a vicious in-swinger with the new ball alongside the regulation out-swinger. Thereafter Anderson has some work to do. It would be remarkable if he could catch up with Courtney Walsh (519), astonishing if he surpassed Glenn McGrath (563).
So much for the speculation. What we know is that we have about two more years to admire an artist at work provided his body does not rebel. But unlike some artists he knows how he weaves his patterns. When the time comes for him to hang up those boots the chances are that he will not spend too much time in commentary boxes. He will be eager to pass on to the next generation the knowledge gleaned from 12 increasingly productive years with the ball in his hand. There is a wonderful seam of information there now, which needs to be mined.
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