I ask this question not as a hasty response to his ineffective performances amid consecutive hammerings for England in this Ashes series.
Anderson is a fine cricketer deserving of respect. He is highly-skilled, durable, reasonably consistent and arguably boasts the most complete mastery of swing bowling among current pacemen.
But I have long challenged the common perception among pundits and fans, particularly those from Britain, that he is in the same league as South African dynamo Dale Steyn.
In fact, he now faces serious competition from Stuart Broad just to be considered the most valuable quick in his own team.
England bowling coach David Saker in May labelled Anderson the best fast bowler in Test cricket.
Obviously you would expect Saker to be a shade biased. But he wasn’t the first authoritative cricketing voice to suggest Anderson was as good or perhaps better than the Proteas paceman.
Legendary Pakistan paceman Wasim Akram said in July that the Englishman was the best Test bowler of his era.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan predicted last year that Anderson would soon overtake Steyn.
Yet the 31-year-old English spearhead is not even close to equalling the South African.
His 334 wickets may make Anderson England’s second highest wicket taker in Tests, after Ian Botham, but a career average of 30.39 hardly justifies claims to greatness.
Steyn has taken 340 wickets at 22.65. Pause and consider that statistical disparity.
Further examination of Anderson’s career exposes the damning evidence that he has often struggled against strong opposition.
In Tests against the three best sides of his generation – South Africa, India and Australia – Anderson has averaged 35.
The South African meanwhile, has shone in the big matches, averaging 26 over his career against his three most difficult opponents – India, Australia and England.
Those who defend Anderson’s ordinary average typically argue that it is slanted because of a poor start to his career.
Yet over the past five years, the period during which he has received comparisons with Steyn, his average against those three aforementioned countries has remained high at 33.
Undoubtedly, Anderson at his peak is a beguiling performer.
Capable of curving the ball in either direction with precision, he has made many great batsmen appear inept on occasions.
However, there is no escaping the fact that when conditions are not in his favour or the ball is not swinging he, more often that not, is a significantly diminished player.
His cohort Stuart Broad is now arguably as influential as Anderson.
Broad, too, can wreak havoc with a full length when conditions are conducive to swing.
But when they are not he is more versatile.
The bounce he extracts from his height and tall action allows him, when necessary, to bowl back-of-a-length, Glenn-McGrath style, waiting for a delivery to deviate off the seam.
Or Broad can launch an offensive on the batsmen using his extremely effective short ball.
Since the start of England’s home series against South Africa 17 months ago, Anderson has averaged 32 in Tests compared to Broad’s mark of 29.
In that three-Test series, we were offered a chance to watch Steyn head to head with Anderson.
Despite the advantage of being in home conditions, Anderson could manage only 9 wickets at 41 as England lost the series.
Meanwhile, Steyn proved a match winner, snaring 15 wickets at 29.
The official ICC player rankings have Anderson in 10th place behind the likes of Steyn (1st), Aussie quicks Ryan Harris (6th) and Peter Siddle (7th) and team mate Stuart Broad (8th).
Right now, that order is correct.
John
Guest
Darren Gough was a much aggressive bowler than Anderson. He was much faster , had variety and a much better strike rate than Anderson in ODIs.
John
Guest
Darren Gough was a much aggressive bowler than Anderson. He was much faster , had variety and a much better strike rate than Anderson in ODIs.
John
Guest
In you take ODIs, Abdul Razaaq was a much better all rounder and a single handed match winner than Flintoff. Razaaq was light years ahead of Flintoff. He was a good player right from debut whereas Flintoff took nearly 5-6 years to become a consistent player. For that matter, South Africa's Brian McMillan was also better when compared with Flintoff
John
Guest
Waqar Younis was way quicker than both Steyn and Johnson. Waqar Younis was the world's TRUEST fastest bowler.... meaning he was very quick through the air and could bowl quick on any surface, even on the dry Sharjah wickets. Jeff Thomson, Mike holding, Lillee etc bowled on super bouncy wickets which gave the illusion as if the balls were travelling lightning quick. I would like to see them bowl on dry sub continent wickets. As far as speed is concerned, the release speed from hand matters and not the speed after pitch
John
Guest
Please dont compare Cairns with Flintoff. Cairns was much consistent, he was a front-line fast bowler with 13 5-wicket hauls in tests. He was even more consistent in ODIs, Flintoff is nowhere near him. Cairns has destroyed feared bowling attacks of AUS and SA consistenly- Lee, Donald, gough etc. He was more disciplined and hard working, better player of spin and has dominated in sub-continent situation as well. In fact, his batting record was better than many batting greats. He hit 150 sixes in 150 ODIs and about 80 sixes in 60 tests. Had he been fit, he would have dwarfed records of Ian Botham and Imran Khan. Flintoff's popularity is due to hypocritical praise from so-called cricket gurus such as Boycott, Gavaskar etc
John
Guest
Indian players are the most over rated. India is the only team, whereas all major players will invariably go thru 4 or 5 out-of-form patches and make their way again into the team. Sehwag, Yuvraj, Pathan, Zaheer all went out of form for nearly half a dozen times, yet they come back and snatch the opportunities of youngsters. In case of teams like AUS, SA etc, players like Hayden, Martyn, Strauss, Vaughan, Pollock etc have retired on their own once they are out-of-form for 5 matches at the most. pakistan is another team. Younis Khan has made nearly 4 comebacks, Youhana 3 comebacks and Afridi nearly 12 times. If the above players from IND and PAK had played for Aus or Eng, they would not have played 100 international games. I wish Indian cricket be cleansed and players selected on merit basis than on recommendation of politicians or business houses
Broken-heartedToy
Guest
Broad is definitely coming of age. He's always looked to have more than one trick if he can maintain his fitness. He'll be one of the best in the world in the next few years. I used to dislike him but over the past couple of years I've begun to like his attitude and he's learning on the job very well.
Matt Sterne
Roar Rookie
Could not agree more. Sorry, but no bowler with a test average of 30+ and ODI average of 29+ is a great. He looks good when the ball s swinging, but that's about it. He has also looked like a complete joke during this series. Meh...
ak
Roar Guru
Flintoff - 3845 runs at an average of 31.77 and 226 wickets at an average of 32.78 Cairns - 3320 runs at an average of 33.53 and 218 wickets at an average of 29.40 So going by averages Cairns is better but not comfortably ahead by any means.
Paul Giles
Guest
You are correct Ronan. I got the stat slighty wrong, I thought he had taken 10 more wickets than he has. Still Craig McDermott took 291 wickets at about 28 and he was a very good bowler. James Anderson does have similarities to Andrew Flintoff. Both players in their first 20 tests were really ordinary and then became really good test match players.
Prosenjit majumdar
Guest
That way would you like to put mcgrath way ahead of lillee,and walsh well ahead of marshall and holding as bowlers?
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Steyn doesn't yet deserve to be ranked ahead of McGrath or Akram in my book. But he is still just 30 and is very durable so he could end up topping 500 wickets quite easily.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Agreed Anderson wouldn't make it into South Africa's pace attack because obviously Steyn and Philander are comfortably ahead of him and, while he and Morkel are neck and neck Morkel offers a very valuable point of difference to Steyn and Philander with his height and bounce.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Hoggard actually had a pretty good career...248 wickets at 30.5 is very decent.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
There is a change in his action but it is not a blatant one.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
We'll see...if and when he plays Test cricket.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Pace and consistency are skills Merv. The most skilful bowler is the one who uses his skills to defeat the batsman and secure their wicket most often. That would be Steyn.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Spot on Nudge
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Bresnan is definitely the man...he stuggled for a while after that major surgery but looked terrific in the last Ashes.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
"Constant threat" is a bit much but he was the SA bowler who threatened more regularly than the others. He just ran into Clarke in form Bradman would have been proud of on wickets as good for batting as you'll ever see.