When Fred Trueman became the first man to claim 300 Test wickets, back in 1964, he was asked if his record would ever be beaten. "Aye," Trueman is believed to have replied. "But whoever does will be bloody tired."
Trueman was from the north Yorkshire town of Stainton, which sounds like a northern English town from a Monty Python sketch about open-pit mining. A little over two hours southwest is Burnley, where in the universe of this sketch whatever was mined in Stainton is taken to be fed into furnaces that billow grey smoke into the skies.
In reality, what Burnley produced is a seam bowler whose wickets have come like coils of steel out of a production line - in industrial quantities. Quantities that, as he nears a Test wicket tally of 700, seemed beyond the furthest bounds of imagination for a seam bowler, even as few as five years ago.
Because this is about James Anderson, there will of course be that debate. He's great, sure, but is he really that great? What can be agreed upon, however, is that that the debate has raged for an exceptionally long period, now stretching decades. More accurately, Anderson himself has done what he does for so long, that he has made that debate stretch. Many who threw shade years ago are likely the same crowd that throws it now, because it is difficult to imagine he has picked up new detractors. Instead he has picked up about 400 wickets since the debate's inception.
It is now possible to mark up the lives of his newest team-mates entirely in Anderson career milestones. Shoaib Bashir was in utero when James Anderson took 5 for 73 at Lord's on debut, possibly still peeing himself when Anderson dismissed Jacques Kallis to take his 100th wicket, seven-years old when Anderson took 24 wickets at 26.04 in England's 3-1 Ashes victory in Australia, likely polishing up his 12 times table when Anderson became England's highest Test wicket-taker in 2015, and not even close to driving age when Anderson surpassed Glenn McGrath to become the most successful fast bowler in Test history in 2018.
It is a career truly staggering in scale for a seam bowler, who requires virtually the entire body to be in working order to function at near its peak. Anderson has bowled over 5000 deliveries more than any other quick, watched England cricket go through several cycles of giddy highs, haunting lows, and even more rebrandings. No fewer than 100 Test cricketers have debuted for England after him. He has also outlasted six UK Prime Ministers, although perhaps this is not such an achievement.
Anderson's numbers are now in the same galaxy as those of cricket's extraordinary lifetime achievers. His wicket haul is in the same neighbourhood as those of Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan (errr surely he's not going to surpass 800… is he?), as Sachin Tendulkar's hundreds and runs, Brian Lara and Kumar Sangakkara's double-tons, Richard Hadlee's five-wicket hauls as a seamer (Hadlee is on 36 to Anderson's 32, by the way). Where Murali and Warne had pushed each other in what was at times a heated competition, Anderson has now been clear on his own as a seam-bowling wicket-taker for more than half a decade.
If it is true that Anderson has been fortunate to play in an England side that has a glut of Tests on their schedule, and is as well-resourced as any Test team has ever been, then it is equally the case that he has meticulously and relentlessly prised out every advantage his relative privilege has made available. His average in Asia was 45.41 after his first five Tests there, 33.0 after ten Tests, 30.97 after 15 and, after of his 30th match on the continent, is now down to an excellent 27.39.
Dale Steyn, one of the best non-Asian seamers ever in Asian conditions, averaged only a bit better - 24.11. Steyn is the leading quick of this century, and it is often said of the two that Steyn was blessed with the greater natural talent, which mostly refers to Steyn's superior pace, which in turn envenomed his reverse-swing phases.
But shouldn't cricket, using history's long lens, also reward durability? Anderson has bowled more than double the number of Test deliveries compared to Steyn. That's 21,000 more times in which roughly seven times his body weight has gone through Anderson's left leg at the point of delivery. Anderson has also taken roughly 60% more wickets, in this format at least.
When, in 2020, Anderson was rethinking his run-up to the crease following a significant calf injury, he made the decision to extend, rather than shorten his run up. He was accelerating too quickly for this version of his body to handle, he decided. At this point, nearly four full years ago remember, he'd already played more Tests than any seamer ever had. He was solving problems in terrain only he has ever trod. At what stage of the slow burn do we value it as much as the blinding flame? Every wicket Anderson takes now is a fresh step in seam-bowling fantasy land.
His is the "craft" school of seam-bowling. And no one has honed it at Test level for as long as he has. Zoom in to the physics of it all - the push with the middle finger at point of release that sends the outswinger surging out of his hand, the middle finger taking over when the inswinger comes out. Plus his still-growing mastery of reverse-swing (see ever-sharper average in Asia).
If Anderson is remembered only as the greatest England bowler, and not as an all-country destroyer of batting orders, perhaps this is merely a reflection of the selective memory of those who watch sports. You are also allowed to change your mind. Or more accurately, allowed to have Anderson change it for you. He has done what he has done at a ludicrously high level, for such a spectacularly long duration. This too is rare, all-time, genius.