Two good articles for you guys to read:
BBC Sport - England's best bowler? Anderson? Botham? Underwood? Or...
James Anderson and how to gauge greatness | The Spin | Sport | The Guardian
I was going to start my own thread on the discussion of Anderson, his place as a possible England great (the greatest?) and the great pace bowlers/seamers of all time but you beat me to it, so here's my 2 pence.
James Anderson, in this early part of the 21st century, is probably one of England's top 2 or 3 bowlers, not forgetting the brief but excellent contributions of Graeme Swann and Simon Jones and of course the inimitable giant that is Freddie. Can Anderson be clearly ranked above any of these guys? Or is that question too vague? Too broad? In my opinion, it probably is.
Anderson, in terms of guile, craft and intelligent is better or greater than both Flintoff and Jones but probably on par with Swann. He falls behind in explosiveness, pace, ripping batting line ups apart (not exactly an impressive average or SR) but in trumps all those names in longevity and in what may matter most, wickets taken. Then again, at what price have these wickets come. Is it better to take a 150 wickets at 21 then 300 at almost 30? I'd prefer a greater strike bowler in my side but there is no denying there is and always will be a place for the Anderson type, the guys who give you 100% every single time, who are always willing to ball and ball hard when others can barely stand. Anderson, for all his lack of statistics has been a tremendous match winner, picking up the important wickets when it counts.
That resilience, that ability to strike when most needed if not always, has dipped in recent years, as well as his consistency and skill with the new ball but at a time when England as a test and ODI team is changing, in this world of KP and Swann and Trott like premadonnas, Anderson has been the constant, the one person England can turn to. Anderson is there in the midst of the struggle and in the deluge of success. Comfortable in both, effective in both. Anderson is not Englands most explosive, awe-inspiring, statistically relevant or pacey fast bowler but he has been England's trump cards when others were unable or unwilling.
In recent times, overt he last decade or so, I'd probably rank the world's best seamers/pace bowlers as such:
Dale Steyn
Mohammad Asif
Glenn McGrath
Brett Lee
Shoaib Akhtar
Shaun Pollock
James Anderson
Freddie Flintoff
Morne Morkel
Mitchell Johnson
Now this is a list off the top of my head but it's how I'd see these guys ranking, but it is pretty rough. Some guys like Pollock and McGrath were nearing the end but were still very, very effective, especially McGrath, Ashes winner and world cup holder, breaking the record for most wickets by a pace bowler and most world cup wickets.
Other names, like Flintoff and Johnson have been too inconsistent to rank top 20 all time or but it's a common problem among modern pace bowlers (See Akhtar and Lee or even Bond, who was far too injury prone).
