Lancashire to consider farewell for Anderson amid fan unrest

English county cricket club Lancashire will look into organising a farewell for bowler James Anderson, as unrest grows among supporters over his departure. The 44-year-old is England's all-time leading wicket-taker, and the club announced last week that it had released him. He first represented the county in 2001.

The issue dominated a tense meeting between the club's leadership and members at Old Trafford on Monday evening. Many members were angry about the decision. Some complained that, because it came at the end of the season, fans had been denied the chance to thank Anderson and celebrate his career.

The club was represented by new chief executive Richard Kenyon and incoming director of cricket Paul Farbrace. They agreed to look for a solution. Farbrace joined by video from a holiday in the United States and is understood to have taken ownership of the decision when answering members' questions.

Reasons for the decision

Farbrace, a former England assistant coach who left his post at Sussex before joining Lancashire, repeated the explanation from the club's public statement on Sunday. He wants to build a squad able to win the County Championship, the top domestic competition, within four years, and does not believe Anderson, who turns 45 next year, will be part of that.

About 200 members attended. One of them told BBC Sport the mood in the room stayed mixed, while others suggested Farbrace had done something to calm the unrest.

Anderson's career

Anderson captained Lancashire in the County Championship last season. The team finished second from bottom in Division Two, but he remained among their best performers, taking 50 wickets and being named the club's Championship player of the year. Several counties have shown interest in signing him for next season.

He played his first List A (limited-overs) match in 2000, aged 17, for the Lancashire Cricket Board against Suffolk. He made his professional debut for Lancashire a year later and was in the England side by the end of 2002. Besides his 911 international wickets, an England record and a record for any pace bowler, he took 443 first-class wickets for Lancashire, plus 83 in List A and 50 in T20 cricket.

When his England career ended abruptly in 2024, Anderson chose to keep playing for Lancashire in 2025, saying then that he felt he could continue for three more years. In his first public comment since Sunday's decision, he expressed sadness but stopped short of retiring.