Updated September 13, 2018 14:20:15

Photo: James Anderson is especially effective on home soil, but has also helped England to victories overseas. (AP: Andy Brownbill)

How do you measure greatness?

When James Anderson this week sent Mohammed Shami's middle stump crashing, to wrap up an impressive English win over India, he laid a claim to be the most successful fast bowler the game has ever produced.

By one clear measure at least: Anderson's 564th scalp took him past Australian great Glenn McGrath's long-standing record for most Test wickets by a pace bowler.

It is, of itself, an achievement that deserves unqualified admiration.

A milestone prompting debate from Manchester to Melbourne, and Barbados to Bangalore about where the Lancastrian sits in the list of all-time greats.

Photo: England's James Anderson has terrorised batsmen for 15 years, often in tandem with new ball partner. (AP: Tertius Pickard)

Anderson has played 143 Test matches, 19 more than McGrath and just two short of Shane Warne's 145, the most by any bowler.

In terms of longevity and endurance alone, Anderson's career is a study in managing the workload of the most demanding of roles in a cricket team, while maintaining standards of consistent excellence.

Anderson is 36 years old. By that vintage most pacemen have buckled under the pressures on their body. And yet there is a suggestion he has several more years left in him.

Courtney Walsh, the man whose record of 519 wickets McGrath overtook in 2005, played until he was 39. For the West Indian and Anderson, the accumulation of wickets has in part been a function of simply lasting the course.

And yet Anderson is demonstrably improving with age, the command of his craft outstripping any ill effects of wear and tear.

In the last four calendar years Anderson's record from 44 Test matches is 184 wickets at 20.90. In 2017 he took 55 wickets at 17. His autumn years are proving his most productive.

Getting in the swing of things

When he first came on to the scene in international cricket in 2003 he was gifted but raw.

By the late noughties, however, a maturing Anderson had arguably become the most accomplished fast bowler in the world.

His chief weapon was and remains his otherworldly ability to swing the Duke ball in either direction, able to alter the trajectory with an almost indiscernible change of action, the ball hidden on his run in by transferring it between his hands at the last moment.

But his mastery of using the upright seam, something that came along with other refined tools as he worked diligently to develop his game, allows for variation when conditions do not suit.

What goes on tour

Anderson enjoys what could charitably be described as a complicated relationship with Australian fans.

The nation of his birth, of course plays a role — Ashes rivalries have a habit of colouring assessments in both hemispheres.

Understandably, local assessments of his qualities are weighted towards what we have seen in front of our eyes. And his visits to Australia have not always been enjoyable experiences.

And yet the characterisation that he has never produced here does not stand up to scrutiny, despite some notable failures.

Anderson arrived in Australia for the 2010-11 series with a reputation as a devastating attack leader after some highly profitable series back home in the preceding years.

That perplexed Australians who remembered his last visit four years prior, when his meagre five wickets came at a cost of 82.60 each.

He left having claimed 24 wickets at 26.04 in a rare away win for the English.

Photo: Glenn McGrath believes no one will now surpass the record James Anderson has taken from him.. (AAP/Simon Renilson )

Even in defeat last summer, Anderson was one of few Englishmen to sustain a performance level that burnished rather than diminished his reputation.

An economy rate lower than any bowler in the series, he did his job in frustrating the hosts with precision and consistency. The wickets did not flow. But had others on his side been as able, the series would have been infinitely more competitive.

In the same class as McGrath?

Taking the record off McGrath inevitably invites comparison between the two.

Aside from the wickets, however, there is little similar in their game. McGrath, a master of line and length, rarely deviated from an off-stump line. Why would he when it was so productive a weapon?

Batsmen knew what was coming but were powerless to resist.

McGrath's technique also relied less on pitches that suited him.

Notable in his record, when compared to Anderson's, is an almost even share of scalps at home or away — 289 from 66 matches in Australia; 55 from 260 overseas.

Anderson, for all his qualities in control and economy when touring, was nevertheless good for an extra wicket each Test when playing on the swinging decks of the UK, where he took 368 from 83 matches compared to 174 from 54 matches away.

Anderson is not alone in being more productive on familiar tracks. It is McGrath's uncommon ability to take his incredible skills on the road that is unusual, rather than a critique of any failing in the Englishman.

A game of opinions

Comparing players across generations, even overlapping ones, of course, is replete with danger; an inexact science.

There are those who will forever champion the visceral explosiveness of Dennis Lillee, the grace of movement and brutal beauty of Richard Hadlee, the unplayable inswinger of Wasim Akram, the sheer speed of Thommo and Tyson, or the violent menace of Curtly Ambrose.

Walsh, whose career trajectory (though not style) perhaps lays greatest similarity to Anderson's, built up his enduring power as an apprentice to the West Indian greats ahead of him in Michael Holding and Malcom Marshall, who hunted in a pack and shared the wickets of hapless opponents during the glorious era of West Indian cricket in the 1980s.

Make your own mind up. But be wary of discounting Anderson's achievement even if you assess him short of another champion.

For what it is worth, Anderson himself, like all great cricketers a student of the game, is in no doubt who should be viewed as the best.

"To be as close to someone like Glenn McGrath as I am is still a bit surreal," Anderson told British television ahead of the Indian series and his incredible milestone.

"For me [McGrath] is the greatest fast bowler there has ever been."

Topics: cricket, sport, united-kingdom

First posted September 13, 2018 05:07:03