Anderson Joins the Manchester Originals

The old saying says that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but Jimmy Anderson laughs in the face of conventional wisdom. The England and Lancashire legend, whose limited ability with the bat in hand has meant he has played very limited white-ball cricket over the years, is set to make his franchise cricket debut at the ripe old age of 43.

A spring chicken of just 42 right now, it has just been announced that England’s record wicket-taker in Test cricket will play for the Manchester Originals in The Hundred this August. Anderson, who turns 43 on the 30th of July, boasts 188 Test appearances and has played 194 One Day Internationals for England.

However, he has never played T20 for England, or a global franchise (though he has appeared in the format for Lancashire). And now, in August 2025, 25 years after his debut for Lancashire in the NatWest Trophy, Jimmy is set to dip his toes into the world of The Hundred.

International Retirement

Anderson, who was born in Burnley in 1982, retired from all international cricket on the 12th of July 2024. When it was made clear to the seamer that he was not in England’s longer-term plans, he was essentially given the option to have one final home Test as a farewell. He appeared for the 188th time in Tests at Lord’s, his final international match coming in the first Test of the series against the West Indies.

He took four wickets in that game to leave his career tally on a massive 704. That means he is third on the all-time list, behind only spin-bowling legends Muttiah Muralidaran (800) and the iconic, sadly deceased Aussie, Shane Warne. Anderson has exactly 100 more wickets than the next pace bowler on the list though (long-time colleague, Stuart Broad) and many feel his haul will never be bettered by a quick.

Many felt that calling time on his England career would also see Jimmy quit cricket entirely. He has proved himself a good media performer as a pundit and podcaster and many who have performed at such a high level do not take well to playing away from the very top of the game.

Show Goes on with Red Rose County

From the James Anderson end….

Sir James Anderson joins Manchester Originals for The Hundred 2025! 🤩 pic.twitter.com/pm0sOYLIu0

— The Hundred (@thehundred) July 15, 2025

However, confident in his fitness and still very much in love with the art of bowling, Jimmy quickly made it clear that he intended to continue playing for Lancashire for as long as possible. Due to being such a regular fixture in the England side from such a young age, he had actually played relatively few times for his home county.

He has an end at Old Trafford named after him, but has actually played there relatively infrequently. However, on the 16th of May 2025, he played his first County Championship game for almost a year at the ground. Lancashire batted first against Derbyshire, and the perennial number 11 made four not out.

He took the new ball when his side bowled and dismissed both openers, ending with figures of 3/53. He again got the Derbyshire openers out, taking 2/25 in the second innings and it became clear, for those few that doubted him, that Anderson still had plenty to offer.

At the start of June, he returned to white-ball cricket with Lancashire, playing his first T20 game of any type for over a decade! There was no sign of rust as he took three wickets from his four overs, conceding just 17 runs to help his side to a win over Durham.

Passed Over for the Hundred and the IPL

The swing bowler was passed over in the Indian Premier League (IPL) draft back in November last year. Despite his huge profile, wealth of experience and incredible skill as a bowler, none of the 10 IPL franchises were prepared to pay the £115,000 fee to acquire Jimmy. Given his limitations with the bat, the limited impact of swing in India and, more than anything, the fact he hadn’t played a T20 game for 11 years, that was no huge surprise.

Undeterred, the player put himself forward for The Hundred the following spring but once again he was left undrafted. He did not have a reserve price for the March first draft but even so, none of the eight teams involved were prepared to take a chance on him. It seems his lack of playing time in limited-overs cricket, in particular T20, was putting teams off.

Wild Card Deal Announced

The Hundred has a somewhat convoluted and complex system for squad formation. Each team has 15 players, with up to four of those being overseas. There is the main draft, which took place in March, as well as each franchise having an England star who is a centrally contracted red-ball pick. There are also local icons and then, closer to the competition, teams can add players through the wildcard draft. This is the last time squads can be bolstered, and in 2025, 32 players were added across the men’s and women’s teams combined.

Manchester Originals, who are based at Old Trafford, and are coached by Aussie Simon Katich, were impressed enough by Anderson’s performances for Lancashire, to add him as their wildcard pick. Anderson is not an obvious choice for this format. He adds virtually nothing with the bat, though he remains a decent outfielder. Whilst he is obviously very useful with the ball, he doesn’t really possess any major variations which are typically so useful in this sort of short-format cricket.

It will be interesting to see how he gets on bowling is steady line and length and what, if any, change-ups he attempts. His experience will be a great help, whilst he should be able to help the other bowlers in the Originals squad, such as Josh Tongue, and youngsters Tom Aspinwall and Sonny Baker.

Rivals the Superchargers Make Interesting Wildcard Addition

Another famous Lancastrian has joined The Hundred and he is very much at the other end of the age spectrum to Anderson. The Leeds-based Northern Superchargers have added promising youngster Rocky Flintoff to their squad as a wildcard. The promising 17-year-old batter is a teammate of Jimmy’s at Lancashire but they will now be rivals. Rocky will play under his father, England and Lancashire legend Freddie Flintoff, for the Superchargers.