Pete Barrow: Burnley Express’s journey to the top brings more questions than answers

Dec 4 2009 by Peter Barrow, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

IT WAS great to see England’s James Anderson serve up a career-best performance in South Africa.

The ‘Burnley Express’ – hampered by a knee injury and a reported broken toe – produced a maiden five-wicket haul as the tourists powered to a seven-wicket win against the Proteas to put them in an unbeatable 2-1 lead in the one-day series prior to today’s clash in Durban.

However, the progress of Anderson as an international cricketer has always left me with the uneasy feeling that his route to the top hardly provides the blueprint for young county players looking to make their way in the game before going on to win an England cap or two.

While he had made something of an impact in the Lancashire League with the lads from Turf Moor, and had impressed at Lancashire’s academy, Anderson found himself plucked from an England A team tour to fill for an injury-stricken first team on tour in Australia in 2002, at the age of just 20.

Fair play to the Lancashire lad, he sat in comfortably with the big boys and has been lucky enough to serve his time improving his game at the top level with a central contract in his grasp – surely an apprenticeship from heaven!

Obviously he is tagged as a Lancashire county cricketer.

But his outings in the domestic game are not numerous and even if he plays until he is 50, Jimmy is going to struggle to rewrite any red-rose appearance records.

While it is wonderful to see a North country sportsman succeed at this level, his path to the top suggests that up-and-coming young cricketers might feel that it is a case of being in the right place at the right time rather than actually earning the right to international honours.