HOLD BACK TEARS

Anderson will need to bowl well 'to stop myself crying'

- Mike Walters

JAMES ANDERSON'S first over in Test cricket went for 17 runs but it has taken him another 21 years to "make peace" with the final curtain.

Eight Prime Ministers ago Anderson was a frisky pup, charging in from the Pavilion End at Lord's like a labrador trailing toilet roll through the house and Zimbabwe opener Dion Ebrahim tucked into his over-pitched gifts.

But the Burnley Boomerang, who had already made a white-ball hoop round corners in Cape Town at the World Cup the previous winter, recovered to castle Mark Vermeulen in his third over.

Another 699 Test wickets have followed, and there will not be a dry eye in the house when Anderson takes his encore against West Indies in the first Test back at Lord's tomorrow.