Lancashire dump Anderson after 25 years — Broad calls it 'disrespectful' and the members are furious

Let this sink in. James Anderson, 44 years old, bowled 25 years of professional cricket for Lancashire. This summer, in Division Two of the County Championship, he took 50 wickets at an average of 17.68. He was named Lancashire's Championship Player of the Year. He captained the side. He was the best bowler on the staff by a country mile.

Lancashire's response? Thanks, Jimmy. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

The club's incoming director of cricket, Paul Farbrace, and newly appointed chief executive Richard Kenyon sat Anderson down and told him they would not be renewing his contract for 2027. A quarter of a century at one club — the Burnley boy who grew up supporting Lancashire, who debuted as a teenager, who became England's all-time leading wicket-taker while wearing the Red Rose in between Test tours — ended in an office meeting with two men who have barely unpacked their boxes.

Stuart Broad was not going to let this slide. On his podcast For The Love of Cricket, co-hosted with Jos Buttler, Broad laid into Lancashire with a venom usually reserved for Australian top orders.

He called the handling "pretty disrespectful." He questioned the leadership within the club. He demanded to know why no one on the board had planned a proper farewell for a man who has given a quarter of a century of service — not just to Lancashire but to English cricket itself.

Broad also drew a line straight back to Anderson's England exit in 2024, when Rob Key and Brendon McCullum informed England's greatest fast bowler that the Lord's Test against the West Indies would be his last. Broad saw a pattern: the people who benefit most from Anderson's genius are the ones who handle his exits worst.

Lancashire's hierarchy probably expected some grumbling. What they got was closer to a mutiny. Around 200 members turned up to a meeting at Old Trafford demanding answers. The atmosphere was, by several accounts, tense. The question that hung in the air was simple: if you are rebuilding a squad that finished seventh in Division Two, why would you start by removing the one player who actually performed?

Farbrace — who called Anderson "without doubt the greatest bowler Lancashire and England have produced" in the same breath as showing him the door — found himself under pressure to at least organise a farewell fixture. Reports conflict on whether that will happen. What is not in dispute is that the decision was made over the heads of the membership and without any plan for a public send-off.

What makes this sting is the repetition. In 2024, Anderson was told his Test career was over after Lord's. The handling was awkward at best. Now Lancashire have done the same thing — taken a cricketing giant who gave everything and ended his tenure in a boardroom, not on the field.

Broad nailed the wider point: this is not just about one player's feelings. It is about what English cricket says to the next generation of players. If this is how you treat the man with 704 Test wickets and 25 years of club loyalty, what message does that send to a 19-year-old academy seamer deciding whether to commit to county cricket?

Anderson's own statement was restrained — dignified, even. He said he had supported Lancashire since he was a kid, that getting to play for them for 25 years was a dream come true. But the line that cut through was the one that wasn't trying to: "If it was up to me it wouldn't have ended like this."

Here is the part Lancashire might come to regret. Anderson has not retired. He has made no announcement about hanging up his boots. Multiple counties are reportedly interested in signing him. At 44, with 50 wickets at under 18 this season, he is demonstrably still one of the best first-class bowlers in England.

The mental image is already forming: Anderson rocking up to Old Trafford next summer in someone else's kit, marking out his run, and doing what he has always done — swinging the ball on a length and making batters look foolish. Lancashire's members will give him a standing ovation. The Lancashire boardroom will pretend they are fine with it.

Twenty-five years. Seven hundred and four Test wickets. Fifty Championship wickets this summer at 17.68. Named captain. Named Player of the Year. And then told to go.

English cricket has a loyalty problem, and James Anderson keeps being the one who proves it.