Revealed: Why West Indies didn't give retiring James Anderson Guard of Honour at the Lord's

James Anderson is playing his 188th and final test for England at the Lord’s.

James Anderson is playing his final test match for England in the ongoing first match against West Indies at the Lord’s. And the West Indies’ plan to give him a guard of honor couldn’t happen due to a humorous reason.

Anderson declared in May that the first test of the series between the West Indies and England at the Lord’s would be his last, bringing an end to his 21-year international career. He will leave test cricket as the all-time leading wicket-taker among fast bowlers.

Before the match, which began on July 10, his daughters Lola and Ruby were given the honor of striking the Lord’s bell to signify the beginning of play. Anderson received a standing ovation from the crowd as he led England onto the field and bowled the first over of the match.

England debutant pacer Gus Atkinson made sure the West Indies batters didn’t spend too much time on the wicket as he picked 7/45. West Indies were bowled out for 121 runs and England started their first innings on Day 1.

They had opened up a 246-run lead before the close of the second session when West Indian debutant Mikyle Louis ran Shoaib Bashir out for a 17-ball duck with a bullet throw. The wicket placed England nine down, bringing Anderson in as the last man.

Jayden Seales revealed why West Indies didn’t give James Anderson a guard of honor

However surprisingly, the West Indies team didn’t give James Anderson a guard of honor, which is usual practice for players who are playing their final game. This raised quite a few eyebrows, however, pacer Jayden Seales opened up on why it did not happen, in the post-match press conference.

“We spoke about it before he came out to bat, that we were going to give him a guard of honour. And then, obviously the run-out took us all the way to a Swiss cottage, like you said. So we wanted to have a guard of honour for the great man but yeah, [it didn’t happen],” Seales said as quoted by Wisden.

The runout of Bashir by debutant Louis was wildly celebrated by the West indies team as the fielder had effected a direct hit with little to aim at. Louis celebrated by running all the way to the boundary to find his brother, Jeremiah, with the entire West Indies team following him.

By the time all of this ended, and they got back on the field of play, James Anderson, the next man in had made his way out to the middle, thereby making it too late for a guard of honour to happen as he entered the ground.  

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