My Hundred: from 60 to 51

 60: Chris Gayle

After Brian Lara retired, I hoped Chris Gayle would continue the tradition of Caribbean cavaliers and attract young West Indians to the sport. It didn’t quite happen that way. Instead, Gayle’s nonchalant brilliance in Twenty20 diverted his attention away from real cricket towards the lucrative franchise league circuit. Of course he was fabulous to watch, swinging sixes with apparent ease, and I’d have placed him much higher had he not treated his Somerset contract several years ago with such apparent arrogance. A twenty-first century sporting icon nonetheless. 

59: Jos Buttler

In my biased opinion, Jos blotted his copybook after being allowed to leave Somerset for Lancashire. Not his fault, I know. He came up through the county ranks as a blazing wicketkeeper-batsman and I had a lot of respect for the teenager’s attitude to the game and spectators when I saw him play at Taunton. I didn’t foresee Jos becoming one of the finest one-day improvisers in the world, though. A frequent match-winner for England in ODIs boasting a strike rate of 120, the third highest on record, leaving the West Country certainly didn’t hold back his limited-overs career. 

58: Glen Chapple

Surely one of the greatest redheads never to play Test cricket for England, Chapple was an extremely consistent seam bowler, late-order batsman and captain for Lancashire, leading them to the Championship crown aged 37. He was granted a consolation ODI against Ireland in 2006, during which he was injured, so that was that. I was at Lord’s in ’96 when he took 6-18 to destroy Essex in the Nat West Trophy Final. Nearly two decades later I was willing him to remain fit enough to reach the 1000-wicket milestone in first-class cricket but he retired, stranded on 985. 

57: Ricky Ponting

Not the most popular of characters in England but then Aussie captains are never at the top of the Barmy Army’s Christmas card list. A more attacking batsman than Steve Waugh or Allan Border, he accumulated runs for fun in a twenty-year career, leading his country to huge success in Tests and World Cups. Hardly a loveable character, ‘Punter’ nevertheless appealed to me on various levels, notably his reluctance to go down the Twenty 20 pre-retirement route. Instead his final fixtures were for Surrey in the Championship and it seemed to me a noble way to bow out. 

56: Mushtaq Ahmed

The roly-poly leg-spinner, only 5 foot 4, is arguably the most successful spinner in the county game since Derek Underwood. ‘Mushie’ was not the best of Pakistan’s world-class crop of spinners in the Nineties but he proved a giant of the County Championship over many years. I saw him twirl for Somerset back in the 1990s but it was at Sussex in 2006 and 2007 where he took a hundred wickets twice in succession, winning titles in the process. Few players are so popular wherever he plays or, as in recent years, coaches. 

55: John Lever

Google him and you’ll probably find an association with Vaseline, like Mike Atherton’s pocketfuls of dirt. However, John Lever spent 22 years at Essex, taking more than 2,000 wickets for the county. His fast-medium swing was rarely appreciated by England selectors but JK’s wickets, economy rates and boundary fielding were instrumental in Essex’s success in both Championship and one-day competitions in the late Seventies and Eighties. I saw him play many times in an era when left-arm pacemen were a novelty. 

54: Adam Gilchrist

Such was Australia’s strength in depth that Adam Gilchrist was almost 25 when he made his ODI debut and nearly 28 when his Test chance finally came along. He soon made up for lost time, becoming the most exhilarating batsman of the Noughties, AB De Villiers and Chris Gayle notwithstanding. Unfortunately for me, he didn’t make many runs when I saw him play a T20 for Middlesex in his latter years but, like Viv Richards, he seemed to save his best for the grandest occasions like a World Cup Final,. Oh, and he was a damn fine wicketkeeper, too. 

53: Andrew Caddick

Although often derided as an inconsistent loner at international level, Andy Caddick nonetheless took 234 Test wickets, at a rate per match almost comparable with Anderson and better than Broad. Having spent twenty years at Somerset he is a legend in the West Country. New Zealand-born, he shared Richard Hadlee’s sticky-out ears, giant feet and devastating short-of-a-length seamer, and took tons of wickets on the traditional Taunton featherbed. Since his 2009 retirement I have watched several matches from in front of the Andrew Caddick Pavilion. 

52: Harry Pilling

I’ve not picked Ashton-Under-Lyne’s Harry Pilling just because he was only 5 foot 3. However, it’s certainly one of the main reasons! He was a feature of Lancashire’s hugely successful side in the 1970s, especially in one-day tournaments, and as such was frequently on my TV screen in the summer. Compared with the Lloyds, Hayes or Wood, ‘Arry wasn’t the most exciting or prolific batsman but he was highly proficient at finding the gaps and holding a one-day innings together His stature made him look comical in the field but I remember always looking out for him. 

51: Martin Crowe

It’s not Martin Crowe’s fault that the Somerset board’s decision to choose him over Viv Richards ripped the county apart. Even a massive Viv fan like me realised that the young NZ superstar was in 1987 a better prospect, and he duly delivered until his country called him home. He never played for us again but Martin went on to be one of the finest Black Cap batsmen – and useful medium-pacer – of all time. His first-class batting average was an awesome 56 and he top-scored in the 1992 World Cup. His death from cancer at just 53 rightly prompted national mourning.

Anderson and Broad, a great double act

James Anderson and Stuart Broad have experienced many ups and downs as international cricketers. Show me a player who hasn't! However, this summer they have passed the 500 mark for wickets taken in partnership, and few players have done that for England throughout history. On today's opener at Old Trafford, it was one of those crazy Broad performances when everything either beats the bat or gets that crucial edge to the slips. However, Anderson's two wickets were the results of perfectly flighted deliveries and showed why he remains one of the top swing bowlers in the world.

After stumps, Broad likened the pair to Andrew Caddick and Darren Gough, in that they offered contrasting styles. One was tall, one relatively short. One extracted bounce and seam, the other swung the ball and was more 'skiddy'. Caddick was considered freakily tall back in the '90s but at 6 feet 5 he wouldn't raise an eyebrow these days. The Yorkshire favourite, two years younger, measured under six feet, freakily short in the modern game for a fast bowler.

It surprised me that they played only 25 Tests in tandem, well short of the 68 featuring both Anderson and Broad. All bar four of Broad's Tests have been shared with Anderson and, while Broad has produced some eye-catching match statistics in the past few years, the Burnley-born bowler has delivered two more five-fors (13 to 11) and an extra 20 wickets (267 to 247). Jimmy burst on the scene in 2003 and claimed five in his first innings, albeit against Zimbabwe. However, injuries and loss of form pushed him down the pecking order and by the 2005 Ashes series, Lancashire colleague Andrew Flintoff and Glamorgan's Simon Jones had joined Hoggard and Harmison to comprise England's most feared foursome for decades.

However, Anderson has been reborn in the past three or four years, and is about to join the 100 Test club and overhaul Ian Botham's national record wicket tally of 383. At 32 he may not have too many years ahead and perhaps Broad could eventually catch him. Broad has a better reputation in one-day cricket and has been T20 captain. Yet it is Anderson who stands at number three in the ODI ICC rankings, behind Narine and Ajmal but above Steyn and Johnson.

Neither endear themselves to me. Feisty characters, often resorting to disgusting verbal onslaughts against the opposition, and no strangers to controversy. Thus the England reactions to the Michael Clarke arm-break sledge and the Jadeja allegation smacked of extreme hypocrisy! Nevertheless, when on song and in favourable conditions they are possibly the best new ball partnership in the world. I'd like Chris Woakes to bag a few wickets but perhaps his role is just to lull batsmen into a false sense of security before A and B again get tossed the ball by Cook.

India would certainly love to have two such seam and swing merchants in their ranks, able to withstand the odd dodgy game and bounce back into the consistent groove which has brought them so much success. England's rankings have slipped since 2012 but with a series win against Dhoni's men looking likely, Broad and Anderson, with a little help from Ballance, Bell and Root, could well be on their way to challenging Australia and South Africa once more.