On The Brink Of Breaking Kumble’s Record, England Great Comes Under Tweet Cloud

In Joe Root’s words, it’s been a week of “ugly truths” for the England cricket team when the raging tweet storm has not spared James ‘Jimmy’ Anderson either. The fast bowler was all set to become the Test cricketer with the most appearance (162) for England beating Alastair Cook’s record when an old tweet he had sent out on fellow fast bowler Stuart Broad which said he “looked like a 15-year-old lesbian” bobbed up. While Anderson’s single contentious tweet is also under the scanner, it is a series of tweets by Oliie Robinson that is the eye of the storm. Over a 12-month period, they made references to Gary Speed’s suicide, the disappearance of young English girl Madeleine McCann in Europe, the N-word, derogatory messages about Muslims, people with disabilities and women. The fast bowling all-rounder seems to have been quite a fiery character when he sent those tweets in 2012 and 2013. The storm might take the sheen off the marathon man Anderson’s achievement in being a fast bowler who is passing all the batsmen and wicket-keeper batsmen who used to be the ones with the most Test caps for England, beginning with Hobbs, Woolley and Hammond through Cowdrey, Gooch and Stewart down to Cook who retired recently. Anderson needs four wickets to pass Anil Kumble on the all-time Test bowlers’ list and six wickets to make it 1,000 first class wickets.