It seems that England's leader of the pack is not happy. Jimmy has given his ECB media minder the slip as his back was turned putting on the latest training DVD, "The 100 most banal answers to life's great questions by Alec Stewart", and spoken his brains. "Anderson angry over T20 snub" says Cricinfo. "I suppose you have to take your hat off to the selectors, don't you?" he told the Express. "But it did take the wind out of my sails and I felt angry about being rested, because I felt that might have had something to do with it. I thought if I had gone there and gone to Abu Dhabi [for the warm-up mini-tour] it might have been different." He continues, "during the South Africa tour I felt I was becoming a key part of the team and now I don't feel like that. That said, I believe that if I had played in the World Twenty20 we would have still won. My self-belief remains intact." Well that's good to know. He hasn't lost the power of psychobabble even if his ability to maintain a consistent argument, let alone line and length, are frighteningly on the wane.
Regular readers may recall back in February there was considerable brouhaha concerning the decision to rest Strauss and Anderson for the Abu Dhabi and Bangladesh tours. There is just way too much cricket, they cried. And then Strauss went and played 6 championship games in seven weeks to prove that either there really was too much cricket, or that he was fully rested and was thus capable of indulging in an eye watering schedule of demoralising defeats for Middlesex, the second worst side in the country. The now Angry Anderson, you may also recall, was suffering with an undiagnosable pain in his knees. It hampered him dreadfully in South Africa, so total bed rest with a vat of Horlicks, his best of Neighbours DVD, and faithful teddy bear Mr. Flat Jack for company were prescribed by the baffled doctors.
What has caused this volte face? Well, I fear it is simple and depressing. Poor dear poppet Jimmy feels left out. His yearly pronouncement that he now feels like the genuine leader of the pack (usually after taking a five fer under gloomy skies on a terror track), hints at a desperate need to be the Daddy. It's not good enough getting picked as one of the three best seamers in the country. He has to be the best of the best. Or at least be told he is. This infantile needyness does not bode well. I like my fast bowlers not to give a stuff about pecking orders; just take wickets, crash a couple into the soft cheeks of Ricky Ponting, and make yourself available to play. If you don't play, it's just possible other people might do well in your absence.
I fear he spent too long in that bed watching and rewatching Scott and Charlene's wedding with a tear slowly tracking down his sulky face. Take it away, Angry Anderson:
I only dreamed that i would find,
A loving heart and open mind,
To see the real me,
And i hoped that you would be the one...
A chance to talk, a chance to grow,
I'll take the risk, let my feelings flow,
I've found the words, i need to say...
Suddenly you're seeing me, just the way i am!
Suddenly you're hearing me,
So i'm talking just fast as i can, to you!
Suddenly, every part of me,
Needs to know every part of you