I am still ambitious to play for England: James Anderson

James Anderson (IANS)

London, March 27:  Veteran England fast bowler James Anderson is not bogged down by the coronavirus delaying cricket and essentially sucking time out of his career which is at the twilight, saying he is still hungry to play for his country.

Anderson, 37, has 584 Test wickets which are the most taken by any paceman in the history of the game.

"I've not actually thought about never playing cricket again," he said during a conference call on Thursday as quoted by www.cricket.com.au.

"I feel like we will play again and I will play again at some stage.

"I'm still hungry to play, I've still got ambitions to play for England.

"So I think the fact I've been able to do this for a long time and I get to play a sport as a job means when I do get to do that again, I'm really going to cherish it and enjoy every single moment of it."

Anderson said he is keeping fit by working out on-line with teammates Stuart Broad and Mark Wood as Britain observes lockdown to fight the deadly virus which has brought the world to its knees.

"A few of the lads are training together virtually," he said. "I did a workout with Stuart Broad and Mark Wood yesterday.

"We've all got Pelotons - the bikes. You can compete against each other. Stuart came out on top this time, with me a close second and Mark Wood in third."

Anderson also opened up on his latest injury bout, which kept him out of the Sri Lanka tour which eventually got cancelled.

"To get injured again was a big frustration," he said. "But it was lucky in a way that it was a broken rib. If it was a muscle injury it would have taken much longer to recover."

Anderson has an ambassadorial role with the Manchester Originals, one of the franchises, but no contract.

"I want to be playing cricket and if that is the only cricket going on, if it's the Hundred or the T20 Blast, I'd love to be involved in that," he said.

"If there wasn't any red-ball cricket this summer, it would be a long, long time for me to be ticking over in the nets.

"People are sacrificing a hell of a lot for us to try and keep us healthy," he said.

"I think us sacrificing some of, and maybe all of, the cricket season and staying inside for a bit, I don't think that's a huge sacrifice."