England Will Nurture Rather Than Pressure Anderson

The 20-year-old has enjoyed a meteoric rise from Lancashire's second team into an England hero in just over a year, culminating in his four wickets for five runs in 14 balls to help England beat Zimbabwe at Lord's on Saturday.

He became the first England bowler in eight years to take five wickets on a Test debut since Dominic Cork against the West Indies at Lord's in 1995.

But as Anderson returns to normal life with Lancashire and prepares for Wednesday's Cheltenham & Gloucester fourth round tie in Durham, England are pleading for patience.

"James will hopefully have a long and successful career for England, but what people must remember is that he's only 20 years old and he is going to have days when he is successful and days when he isn't," warned chairman of selectors David Graveney.

"Let's hope we don't get into the English habit of building a young player up only to knock him down again, but from what I have seen of him so far, he is a very impressive young man.

"I have seen him do television and radio interviews and he always seems to handle them very well, but the people around him are going to have to look after him and that applies to Lancashire as well as England."

That process has already begun within Old Trafford with coach Mike Watkinson, a regular phone contact for Anderson during the winter, warning his young protigi of the possible problems ahead of him.

"He's aware of the pitfalls," said Watkinson. "We have sat down with him and gone through all the problems and I believe he has the temperament to come through the other side.

"He's smart enough to realise what can go wrong, that you can be built up and just as quickly knocked down. He's come a long way in a short time, but he has a solid background, a close family involved in local cricket and has developed through all the representative age groups and that's a good grounding.

"He appreciates that he has to stay focused, not get pulled in the wrong direction and to keep doing what he knows is right. I just hope that no one expects him to fill Darren Gough's boots immediately."

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