Lord’s is a stadium synonymous with memories and emotions; it is the Home of Cricket and a place of pilgrimage for fans, players and bystanders alike, including Sir Andrew Strauss.
But this week in north London there’s a double dosage of feeling ahead of England’s Test match against the West Indies.
For we will see the last of record seamer James Anderson in an England shirt – the sport’s bigwigs have handed him his pension despite his abilities with the ball failing to fade – and fans will mark another Red For Ruth day, where Lord’s paints itself red for the Ruth Strauss Foundation in aid of helping young people whose parents are dying of cancer.
And in the cauldron of emotion that’ll build from Wednesday morning, many are willing for Anderson to get eight wickets and match the late, great Shane Warne’s international record of scalps.
It’s unlikely, given the weather and rarity of taking the required wickets, but that does not deter Andrew Strauss – former director of English cricket and Test captain – from stating the Lancashire pacer deserved a knighthood.
Arise Sir Jimmy
“Any fast bowler that plays 188 Test matches deserves a knighthood,” Strauss said yesterday.
“Jimmy’s still bowling well, as we saw from his performances at Lancashire, but there’s a ticking clock there for the next Ashes. I think there’s 18 games until the next Ashes.
“And at some stage you’ve got to juggle that need for the future with the need for the present.
“So I can understand why they’ve chosen this is the right time to do that. One thing we know for sure is that to win in Australia, or to win any Test match or any Test series, it all comes down to the quality and variety of your bowling attack.
“The next Ashes is too far away for Jimmy but people have written him off many times, and probably myself, but that does feel too far down the road.
“So at some stage, you have to start planning for that. It’s going to be a very emotional and poignant Test match.”
England’s Bazball revolution – under head coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes – got off to a blitzing start with the side sweeping aside most of their opposition.
But the excitement has tailed off with the team struggling against Australia and India in recent times.
This summer they take on the West Indies and Sri Lanka before away series against Pakistan and New Zealand.
Strauss on Bazball
“I would say [success this summer is] about reestablishing and clarifying their way of playing,” Strauss, who has helped raise £5m with the Ruth Strauss Foundation, added.
“There’s obviously a lot of talk about Bazball and how it was reinventing Test cricket. There has been a reasonable amount of pushback against that after the winter, around England being smarter and a bit more circumspect.
The next Ashes is too far away for Jimmy but people have written him off many times, and probably myself, but that does feel too far down the road
Sir Andrew Strauss
“What Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum want at the end of this is for that conversation to be silenced or subdued somewhat.”
Added Strauss: “What would failure be? It would be an inconsistent summer where all of these questions remain at the end. It’s an opportunity to be committed to the approach and see the fruits of their labour, and as a result they can have real clarity heading into the winter and beyond.”
So this week there’s a lot going on in terms of the future of England, but above all there will be an overriding sense of farewell.
Farewell to a legend of the game in James Anderson and the birth of a new England without such an iconic, generational talent.