Jimmy Anderson is set to bring the curtain down on his record-breaking England career this summer after face-to-face talks with the head coach, Brendon McCullum. The Guardian understands McCullum recently made a whistle-stop five-day visit to the UK, travelling 11,000 miles from his home in New Zealand to meet Anderson and tell him in person, over a round of golf, that the Test team is looking to the future. This primarily means building a seam attack for the next Ashes series in the winter of 2025-26, by which time Anderson will be 43.
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Worcestershire resume their season against Kent at Canterbury on Friday, barely a week since the tragic death of their young spinner Josh Baker. “Guys are still trying to process it,” says Alan Richardson, the head coach now trying to shepherd his flock through the worst of times. The first of these came on Tuesday, Worcestershire’s players resuming training at New Road – flood waters now receded – just five days after Baker, 20, died unexpectedly.