NASSER HUSSAIN on Jimmy Anderson stepping away from England in the summer - and why he'll have extra motivation to end his stellar career on a high

I was fortunate enough to be there at the start of Jimmy Anderson’s England career and handed him his first Test cap. And it will be an absolute pleasure to hopefully be there and watch him at the end.

In the 21 years in between, everything he has done has been an absolute joy to watch. 

The skill, fitness, stamina, coming back from injury and adversity, his will and hunger to win. He ticks every box.

Everything an England captain, team-mate or fan can ask of an individual representing their country, you get from Jimmy Anderson. 

He has been absolutely phenomenal. If it has taken someone to tap him on the shoulder and say, “We may have to move on”, then so be it.

He will be 42 this summer and there are a crop of younger, faster bowlers coming through, so in the long term, it’s probably the right thing to do.

England have to learn to live without Jimmy and to learn to win away from home without him, especially in Australia.

But it’s also right to give him one more summer, so he can say goodbye to the game and England fans get to say farewell to the finest fast bowler we have ever produced.

It will be an emotional time for him but it won’t be like a farewell tour because every game, every spell, he gives his utmost. 

That last delivery he bowls with the red Dukes ball this summer, he will put in as much effort as for that first delivery he bowled at Lord’s in 2003.

He looks as fit and trim as ever and I’m sure he will get wickets.

He needs nine more to surpass Shane Warne’s tally of 708. Hopefully he does it and continues to show everyone what a great he has been of English cricket.

You hope that he goes out on a high in the same way his great mate Stuart Broad did last summer. He deserves his own fairytale ending.