Didn't want to jeopardise my Test career: James Anderson on snubbing 'The Hundred'

Premier England fast bowler in the longest format, James Anderson wants to prolong his Test career and that was the reason behind his decision to not take part in the Hundred as a player. He did mention that he had thoughts surfacing in his mind to ply his trade in the 100 ball tournament but decided against it contemplating the fact that it is for the youngsters. 

"I did think about whether I should actually try and get a gig as a player," he said, "but in the end, I just felt it was probably for the younger guys to crack on with that. I didn't want to affect my Test availability by getting injured throwing myself around in the Hundred - it might not have been the best idea,” Anderson was quoted as saying during a BBC media launch for the Hundred. 

"I did explore it - I was interested, but I fell down on the side of prolonging my Test career. I didn't want to jeopardise that too much so I'll leave it to the young lads to throw themselves around in the field too much."

Most successful fast bowler in the Test format, Anderson despite his limitations of playing in the competition to prolong his Test career doesn’t expect the likes of Sam Curran, Chris Woakes and Ben Stokes to back out from giving their everything in order to avoid injuries ahead of a gruelling Test summer with a five-match series against India at home and five-match series against Australia away. 

He believes that the tournament will help the top order batsmen ahead of international outings. The inaugural edition of the competition kicks off on 21st July. 

"You can get injured at any point - that's just the nature of the game," Anderson said. "I don't think people are going to be careful because of a Test series: you've got to throw yourself into it and try to play at 100% every time you get the chance. Hopefully, nothing like that happens but there obviously is the chance because every time you go out on the field there is a chance of injury."

"I think there's definitely no harm in playing the Hundred and playing some white-ball cricket, having that freedom to go out there and try and hit the ball. Test cricket does have a way of trying to stifle you at times and you can get a bit uncertain about your technique or movements and things like that. All the Hundred will do is encourage positivity: a positive moment of the feet, positive shots, and I think that can only be a good thing,” the speedster concluded.