England legend James Anderson announces retirement from Test cricket

Published

1 year ago

May 11, 2024

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James Anderson has announced he will be retiring from international cricket after England’s first Test against the West Indies in July.

Anderson, known as Jimmy, is England’s highest Test wicket-taker of all-time, having taken exactly 700, one of only three players to reach the mark, and the only seam bowler to do so.

“It’s been an incredible 20 years representing my country, playing the game I’ve loved since I was a kid”, he said in a statement on Instagram.

“I’m going to miss walking out for England so much. But I know the time is right to step aside and let others realise their dreams just like I got to, because there is no greater feeling.”

Anderson, 41, thanked “everyone who has supported me over the years”.

“It’s always meant a lot, even if my face often doesn’t show it,” he added.

Anderson took his 700th in his most recent outing against India in Dharamsala in March.

He has decided to call time on his Test career after talks with England head coach Brendon McCullum, who wants to modify his side’s seam attack and build towards the future with one eye on the 2025-26 Ashes.

The Lancashire bowler has played an English record 187 Test matches, after making his debut in 2003.

In all, he has bowled almost 40,000 deliveries, an astonishing figure for a Test quick bowler, but, perhaps inevitably, his figures have slipped and in the last 12 months, he has taken only 15 wickets in eight Test matches.

He would need nine more wickets to move above Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne’s 708 dismissals and become the second-highest Test wicket-taker of all time. Another spinner, Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan, leads the pack with 800 wickets.

Often described as the best swing bowler in the history of the sport, Anderson was in the England squad that won the 2010 T-20 World Cup and the England side that reached the 2013 Champions Trophy final.

Across all international formats, including T-20s and One-Day Internationals (ODIs), he has taken 987 wickets in 400 matches.

His 269 ODI wickets is an English record. He played in 194 ODIs and 19 T20s before his international white-ball career ended in 2015.

That was the year he overtook Sir Ian Botham’s 383 dismissals to become England’s record Test wicket-taker and three years later, he overhauled Australian Glenn McGrath’s total of 563 Test wickets to become the most prolific fast bowler of all time.

His long-time bowling partner Stuart Broad retired last summer, but Anderson decided not to join him.

Instead, he carried on to play in four of England’s five Tests in the 4-1 defeat in India earlier this year.

In 2011, he was awarded the Freedom of the Borough of Burnley, where he was born and raised. Four years later, he was made an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours “for services to cricket”.

UK

Manhunt after five people stabbed at event in southeast London

Published

5 hours ago

May 17, 2025

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Manhunt after five people stabbed at event in southeast London

A manhunt has been launched after five people were stabbed at an event in southeast London, police have said.

Officers were called to Nathan Way, Thamesmead, at 4.19am on Saturday, the Metropolitan Police said.

Five people were found with stab wounds and were taken to hospital where their injuries are still being assessed.

No arrests have been made.

“Enquiries are ongoing and a cordon will remain in place throughout the day,” a Met Police statement said.

Police are appealing for anyone with information to come forward.

UK

Three Iranians charged under National Security Act after investigation by UK counter-terror police

Published

7 hours ago

May 17, 2025

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Three Iranians charged under National Security Act after investigation by UK counter-terror police

Three Iranian men have been charged with offences under the National Security Act in the UK, police have said.

The trio have been charged with engaging in conduct likely to assist a foreign intelligence service between 14 August 2024 and 16 February 2025, following an investigation by counter-terror police.

The Metropolitan Police said the three men are Mostafa Sepahvand, 39, Farhad Javadi Manesh, 44, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 55.

The foreign state to which the charges relate is Iran, police said.

All three men will appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on Saturday, the force added.

Sepahvand, of St John’s Wood, London, has also been charged with “surveillance, reconnaissance and open-source research” with the intention of “committing serious violence against a person in the UK”, according to a police statement.

Meanwhile, Manesh, of Kensal Rise, London, and Noori, of Ealing, London, have also been charged with “engaging in conduct, namely surveillance and reconnaissance, with the intention that acts, namely serious violence against a person in the UK, would be committed by others”.

Commander Dominic Murphy, from the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command, described the charges as “extremely serious”.

“Since the men were arrested two weeks ago, detectives have been working around the clock and we have worked closely with colleagues in the Crown Prosecution Service to reach this point,” he said.

“Now that these men have been charged, I would urge people not to speculate about this case, so that the criminal justice process can run its course.”

A fourth Iranian national aged 31 who was arrested was released with no further action on Thursday.

In a separate unrelated probe, counter-terror officers arrested five Iranian men, aged between 29 and 46, during raids across various locations in Greater Manchester, London, and Swindon earlier this month.

Last October, MI5 director general Ken McCallum said the UK intelligence agency had responded to 20 “potentially lethal” Iran-backed plots since 2022, warning of the risk of an “increase or broadening of Iranian state aggression in the UK”.

UK

Two firefighters and one other person die after fire at former RAF base in Oxfordshire

Published

1 day ago

May 16, 2025

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Two firefighters and one other person die after fire at former RAF base in Oxfordshire

Two firefighters and a member of the public have died in a large fire in Bicester, the fire service announced.

The firefighters died in the inferno at a former RAF base in Oxfordshire, which now hosts historic motoring and aviation centre Bicester Motion.

The local fire service was called to the scene at 6.39pm last night.

Chief Fire Officer Rob MacDougall said: “It is with a very heavy heart that we today report the loss of two of our firefighters. Families have been informed and are being supported.

“Our thoughts are with them at this most difficult of times and we ask for privacy to be respected.

“We cannot release any details at present but will provide further information as soon as we can.”

Two other firefighters sustained serious injuries and are currently being treated in hospital, Oxfordshire County Council said in a statement.

Footage shared on social media shows plumes of smoke billowing into the sky and flames swallowing the large building.

Ten fire crews attended the incident, with four remaining at the scene. The fire is still ongoing, but it is considered under control.

Local residents were advised to remain indoors and keep their windows shut, but this advice has now been lifted.

Bicester Motion said in a statement it would be closed today and over the weekend.

The cause of the fire is not yet known.

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