James Anderson took 50 wickets as Lancashire captain, and they have still left him out of their rebuild
Lancashire have a fair case for moving on from a 44-year-old. They did not need to end the career of England’s record Test wicket-taker like this.
Oct 25, 2026
James Anderson captained Lancashire this summer, took 50 County Championship wickets at an average under 18, and turned 44 in July. Lancashire have now told him there will be no contract for 2027.
The news came out through The Times, and neither the club nor Anderson commented when it did. It is not clear whether he will retire or look for another county. Daily Mail Sport reported that he is not expected to play on elsewhere, which would end a first-class career that began at Lancashire in May 2002.
The numbers say he can still bowl
Fifty wickets is not a farewell tour. Lancashire started the season as favourites for promotion from Division Two and finished second from bottom, ahead only of Gloucestershire. It is hard to pin that on Anderson. He played 11 of their 14 Championship games while managing a calf problem, and only six bowlers in the division took more wickets. The club named him its Championship player of the year.
Nasser Hussain, who picked a young Anderson for England’s tour of Australia in 2002 when he was playing for Lancashire’s second team, said on Sky Sports that he did not think Anderson was one of the club’s problems. “I personally think Lancashire are a better side with a 44-year-old Anderson than without,” he said. On the cricket alone, I think he is right.
I can see the other side
There is a fair case for Lancashire, though. Richard Kenyon, the new chief executive, and Paul Farbrace, the new director of cricket, have been brought in to rebuild the side, and a rebuild means picking players who will still be around in 2029. Anderson will be 47 by then. If the plan is to hand the new ball to younger seamers, a 44-year-old captain who still wants it is in the way. That is a hard call. It is not a mad one.
What bothers me is the way it has happened. Anderson has an end named after him at Old Trafford. He has 704 Test wickets, more than any fast bowler in history, and he played his 188th and last Test at Lord’s in July 2024. A player like that should get to pick his own last game. Being told in a meeting, and then having it reported before he had said a word himself, is a thin way to finish.
India will remember him too
Indian fans know him better than most. His 700th Test wicket was Kuldeep Yadav in Dharamsala in March 2024, and since 2025 India and England have played their Test series for the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. His highest Test score came against India as well, 81 batting at No. 11 at Trent Bridge in 2014.
If this is the end, Lancashire owe him a proper send-off at Old Trafford, not a line in someone else’s newspaper.