Over the past week or so I’ve been speaking to people who knew Jimmy Anderson in his early days. The Antigua Test, of course, will be his 100th, and he needs only four wickets – a morning’s and evening’s work with two new balls, perhaps? – to go past Ian Botham’s England record of 383. But some illuminating discussions left me wishing I’d had them before – and not waited until cricket’s statistical God tapped us all on the shoulder. A few themes recurred: Jimmy wouldn’t say boo to a goose; he surprised his new Lancashire colleagues by bowling fast and shaping it away; he was a natural. James Anderson needs just three wickets to go level with Sir Ian Botham as England's top Test wicket taker . Anderson (back, second from left) 'wouldn’t say boo to a goose' says his old county captain Warren Hegg . Anderson trains ahead of the first Test in Antigua on Monday, which will be his 100th for England . It was this last point that was most striking. Unlike the majority of England cricketers, Anderson did not ease effortlessly through the age groups. There’s even a suggestion Lancashire failed to spot his talent first time round, and needed to witness him at a second trial before they were convinced. Instead, he played for Burnley CC, a club which produced more than its share of first-class cricketers: the Brown brothers, Michael and David, John Clare, and Vishal Tripathi. So when he was finally snapped up by Lancashire Under-17s, he was very much in the raw. John Stanworth, who was then Lancashire’s player development manager, told me that coaches from other counties would pass comment on Anderson’s idiosyncrasies, not least his habit of looking at his feet as he delivered the ball. The retort was a simple one: Anderson was bowling fast and getting good batsmen out. Stanworth was wise enough to leave him alone, with one exception: at one stage, his back leg started coming behind his body, and he began running on the pitch. Anderson and his first England captain Nasser Hussain celebrate a wicket during the 2003 World Cup . England quick James Anderson plays his 100th Test match in Antigua against the West Indies from Monday . A session with Bob Cottam sorted that. Otherwise, Stanworth allowed Anderson to blossom, unencumbered by technical advice. Guess what happened? As soon Anderson got involved in the England Under-19 set-up, he mislaid his awayswinger. It took Lancashire coach Mike Watkinson – once a swing bowler himself – to reacquaint him with some fundamental truths about the art. Anderson’s next departure from the natural game that had served him so well came not long after his first taste of senior international cricket. From now on, the Top Spin will be shorter, sharper, more regular and maybe even more personal. For more cricket-related snippets, feel free to go to twitter.com/the_topspin . Between the end of the home summer in 2004 and the start of the 2006-07 Ashes, Anderson played two Tests – a disaster in Johannesburg and a triumph in Mumbai. But England had won the 2005 Ashes without him, and he had spent much of the time bowling by himself, at a cone, in some corner of a foreign field or other. For England’s much-praised fast-bowling coach of the time, Troy Cooley, Anderson felt like the one that got away. When Peter Moores took charge of England in the summer of 2007, he encouraged Anderson to be himself. The rest is history (and that, by the way, is a feather in Moores’s cap that often gets forgotten). Peter Moores deserves credit for allowing Anderson to play his natural game when on England duty . Anderson has always been at his best when allowed simply to bowl his natural away-swinging deliveries . So there you have it. The man who is about to become England’s leading Test wicket-taker of all time has always been at his best when others have left him alone, when his head has not been filled with well-meaning technical advice, when he has just run in and – heaven be praised – swung it as naturally as breathing comes to you and me. There is a lesson here for English cricket. For all the time and money invested at the national academy in Loughborough, England’s best bowler has been at his most potent when he has done it his way. In Pakistan, the cricket community intuitively understands the importance of this: Nasser Hussain even described Anderson as ‘un-English – more like a Pakistani’. In England, the cricket community errs on the side of over-instruction. Thank goodness Anderson stuck to his guns.
Jimmy Anderson could move past Ian Botham's record during first Test.
Anderson is just four wickets away from beating Botham's tally of 383.
The Lancashire fast bowler has always been a natural swing bowler.
Lowest points of Anderson's career have come with too much tinkering.
Peter Moores deserves credit for allowing bowler to be himself for England.