England great James Anderson will join the team’s backroom staff as a fast bowling mentor when he retires from Test cricket after next week’s series opener against the West Indies at Lord’s. The 41-year-old is the first seamer and only third bowler to take 700 Test wickets after spinners Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan. Anderson, however, decided to end his Test career after England made it clear they wanted to move on ahead of the 2025/26 Ashes. But England managing director Rob Key told reporters on Monday: “After the Lord’s Test, Jimmy will continue in our formation and help out a bit more as a mentor.”
Key added: “He has a lot to offer English cricket. We don’t want this to end.
“When we asked him, he was excited. He will have a lot of options. English cricket would be very lucky if he decided to stay in the game.”
Anderson is currently playing for Lancashire against Nottinghamshire in the County Championship at Southport, but his first-class future remains uncertain.
“Whatever he does with Lancashire will probably work after the Lord’s Test,” said Key.
England have included three new players in their squad for the first two matches of a three-Test series against the West Indies, with Jamie Smith selected to keep wicket ahead of Jonny Bairstow and Ben Foakes.
Smith, 23, is averaging over 50 in the County Championship this season and celebrated his Test call-up by scoring exactly 100 for Surrey against Essex on Sunday.
He usually plays as a specialist batsman for Surrey, with Foakes keeping wicket for the reigning county champions.
“Sometimes you also select people for what they will be and where you think they can progress,” Key said.
“It’s the beginning for Jamie Smith. We feel he will be a fantastic international cricketer.”
Key, asked how Smith would cope with the demands of keeping wicket for 90 overs a day in a Test match when he is not a regular behind the stumps, said he had consulted several former England wicketkeepers, Chris Read, James Foster and Alec Stewart – – Smith’s boss in Surrey.
“Some of the guys have been the best goalies in the country… We use them a lot and trust their opinions a lot,” Key explained.
– ‘Wrong direction’ –
Key added that Bairstow, 34, “needs to get back to what he was a few years ago” when the Yorkshireman hit six Test centuries in 2022.
Bairstow, however, has struggled of late after almost a year out of the game following a horrific broken leg in a freak accident on a golf course.
“Generally their form, across all formats, is going a bit in the wrong direction,” said Key, a 45-year-old former England batsman.
“It’s a tough job being a goalkeeper and you want someone who can support series after series. We weren’t convinced Jonny would be able to do that, especially at the stage of his career he’s at.”
Key spoke for the first time since defending champions England’s defeat to India in the T20 World Cup semi-finals.
England won just one of their four matches against other Test sides during a tournament in the Caribbean and the United States, following a woeful defense of their over-50s World Cup title in India last year.
These setbacks cast doubt on the positions of English captain Jos Buttler and coach Matthew Mott.
But Key said he would not rush into their future ahead of England’s next white-ball series against Australia in September.
“I’m not going to rush anything into this,” he said.
“At times I thought we showed how good we were and at times we were inconsistent. Let’s let the dust settle at the World Cup and move on from there.”
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