TIME FOR ANOTHER ONE?...

The picture above shows Her Majesty The Queen bestowing a knighthood on former England cricket captain, Sir Alistair Cook, who had retired from the captaincy having scored over 12,000 runs for his country - more than any other batsman in the annals of English cricket.

Now I apologise for those of you who are not aficionados of the Summer game for inflicting another post on you but by any standards the milestone reached yesterday by James Anderson of reaching 600 wickets for England really does deserve some comment.

He becomes the fourth highest wicket taker in the history of Test cricket, after Muralitheran,Shane Warne and Anil Kumble......but they were all spin bowlers, content with short run-ups at gentle pace.   Anderson is a pace bowler - even yesterday he was clocking an average of over 83 mph for each delivery - and so in terms of sheer physical effort I suggest that his achievement is arguably more admirable than the three above him in the list.   So far he has bowled over 5,600 overs in Test matches - almost 34,000 balls bowled, each with a long run up and exerting huge stress on his body.  But he has done that for 17 seasons and looks as if he will keep going.

When he eventually retires from the game, I hope that like Cook and many other cricketers before him, Anderson will be awarded the knighthood his dedication, skill and sheer effort deserves.