Jimmy Anderson in talks with Surrey to continue county career after Lancashire exit

Jimmy Anderson has opened talks over signing for Surrey next season with the club growing in confidence that England’s leading wicket-taker will agree to join them for what would be a remarkable swansong.The 44-year-old has been inundated with expressions of interest since being released by Lancashire last month after 25 years at Old Trafford, with Surrey understood to have made a firm move by offering him a contract.Anderson had initially contemplated retirement after being left feeling “sadness and shock” at being let go in a meeting with Lancashire’s new director of cricket, Paul Farbrace, but appears increasingly likely to play on despite turning 45 next July.Unlike many other counties Surrey have the resources to make Anderson an attractive offer and can easily accommodate him within the England and Wales Cricket Board’s £3.2m salary cap, which the club rarely spends in full due to the number of centrally contracted players on their books.Nine Surrey players were given central contracts by the ECB last month including five seam bowlers in Gus Atkinson, Sam Curran, Matthew Fisher, Jamie Overton and Henry Crocombe, but there are also compelling cricketing reasons for signing Anderson.Surrey can also offer a return to Division One of the County Championship after Anderson took 50 wickets at an average of 17 in Division Two last season, as well as a competitive team capable of challenging for the title playing at a Test venue.The club are yet to appoint a head coach for next season after Gareth Batty, who won three successive County Championships between 2022 and 2024, left the Oval to join Chennai Super Kings last month.Nottinghamshire are also monitoring Anderson’s situation as they are in the market for an experienced seam bowler, but their preference is understood to be signing Ollie Robinson, who has been given permission to talk to other clubs by Sussex as he would command a transfer fee with 12 months left on his contract.Anderson has already ruled out moving across the Pennines to Yorkshire, telling the Tailenders podcast that he “wouldn’t have thought so” when asked if that was a possibility last month.Meanwhile, it has emerged that Northamptonshire and former Australia batter Chris Lynn has served a one-month ban after testing positive for cocaine at the end of the summer’s T20 Blast.Lynn accepted the charge from the Cricket Regulator, having admitted to taking the drug after the Steelbacks’s quarter-final victory over Gloucestershire at Wantage Road back in July.The 36-year-old retired hurt during the match but played at Finals Day the following weekend as Northamptonshire lifted the trophy for the third time in their history. Lynn was selected for doping control after the final, with his eventual ban cut from three months to one after agreeing to undergo a “substance of abuse treatment programme”.