Watch the emotional scenes at Lord’s as Lancashire and England legend Jimmy Anderson retires from Test cricket

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Emotional scenes Jimmy Anderson retirement last game highlights

England and Lancashire County legend Jimmy Anderson has officially called time on his international career after retiring from Test cricket on Friday afternoon, and there was barely a dry eye in sight as he bid goodbye at Lord’s.

Anderson announced his retirement from England back in May and has now played his farewell game for his country, as well as claiming his final wicket with a win over the West Indies on the last day of the first Test. An era really has come to an end.

Helping thrash the Windies by innings and 114 runs, the 41-year-old Burnley-born bowler finished on 704 Test wickets in 188 matches over the course of 21 years – and it could have even been a nice round 705 had he not spilt a very simple catch.

Regardless, it was a humorous way to put a bow out following one of the most revered careers in English cricket, and today was only ever about saying goodbye as the heartwarming guard of honour he received before the game.

Admitting that he had already “come to peace” with retirement and that now is the right time to step aside and play his part as England ushers in the next generation, Jimmy has already joked that he’s looking forward to playing some more golf.

However, thankfully, it isn’t ta-ra forever as the national team and LCCC veteran has already confirmed he will soon join the backroom staff to help develop future fast bowlers.

Anderson is also yet to confirm whether he will retire full stop and end his time at Lancashire, with head coach Dale Benkenstein stating that currently “it’s not a no” and they will simply do their best not to pressure him into making the decision either way.

The embrace between him and long-time teammate, not to mention, best mate Stuart Broad was also one that had people in the ground and watching at home welling up.

As did this moving montage.

With fans looking back on his truly remarkable tenure, one particular statistic we loved was shared by BBC’s Henry Moeran, who broke down that “supposing Jimmy Anderson’s run-up is about 19 yards, and he’s bowled 40,002 deliveries in Tests… that’s 760,038 yards or 430 miles”.

As he added, by chance, this just so happens to be “the distance on foot to walk from the Utilita Bowl [in Southampton] to Chester-le-Street [Durham] via every Test venue in England.”

Fair to say he’s put in the hard yards of the best two decades.

Anderson was ultimately met with a standing ovation not only from everyone in the dressing at Lord’s but the entire cricket ground itself as he savoured his final moments in England whites.

We’re not crying, you are…

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As the man himself has already reiterated, he feels as good bowling as he has ever done, so we’re still holding on to the hope that this isn’t the last dance altogether, and even if a dream return to England one day is off the table at this point, he can still shine for Lancs with the likes of 2024 T20 Blast ongoing.

But for now, we bid Jimmy Anderson a heartfelt farewell and congratulate him on all of his incredible achievements playing for England – we hope he enjoys a little more downtime from here on out.

Naturally, he signed off in the best way he knew how…

See you later, legend, and we’ll cheers one to you at the pub later on.

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Featured Images — England Cricket (via Instagram)/Sky Sports (via screenshot)