James Anderson Grateful West Indies For Their Tour To England:

 James Anderson praised the West Indies for having made the “scary step” to tour England, with Britain experiencing the highest death toll for coronavirus in Europe. As many as 40,000 people in Britain’s epidemic so far are believed to have died from COVID-19. The West Indies came to Manchester on Tuesday to take on a three-match series behind closed doors that will start on July 8 in Southampton, signaling the return of the international.

“I think it’s awesome for the nation, wonderful that we end up seeing some Test cricket played after a good lay-off,” Anderson said Thursday during a conference call. International cricket is vital to funding all stages of the game, with the England and Wales Cricket Board predicting that it could lose £252 million ($320 million) if no matches of any sort were played this season.

Three players from West Indies decided not to tour but a 25-strong squad led by captain Jason Holder traveled to England.”We are immensely thankful from our point of view that the West Indies are coming over here,” Anderson said.

“With what’s going on in the world I can imagine it’s a frightening decision for many of them, for all of them, to take the journey.”The second and third matches are scheduled to take  place later on at Old Trafford in July, the home ground of Anderson’s Lancashire and the current bio-secure base of West Indies. A back-to – back trio of games will make life difficult for pacemen like Anderson, the most successful Test bowler in England.

He’s nearer to the end than the beginning of his impressive career at the age of 37 which has seen him miss games from injuries the past year, including a fractured rib. However, Anderson said during the lock down he had maintained a decent level of fitness and was again enjoying bowling in the nets.

But he agreed a series that spanned only 21 days could mean England would have to make the most of their fast bowler lake. “There are concerns — we won’t have any competitive cricket before the first test match and we’ve got three quick succession tests, so obviously there are things we need to look at in terms of workloads and whether we’re rotating,” Anderson said.”I ‘m confident that the medical staff and coaches are doing their due diligence on that. It’s something we’re going to have to look at in a couple of weeks, so I’m just loving getting back and feeling.