At just 40, Jimmy Anderson steps to the wicket with the natural grace that has delighted cricketers since he began his international career as a quick bowler .
Watch him slide into his delivery stride. Not a squeak, not a moan — his 19-year test With more than 650 wickets in his career, he remains England's best exponent.
A small number of footballers persist into early middle age, but they are very few and certainly do not reach such a sustained level of prominence.
37-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo keeps trying and would still be a giant leap if his teammates could find it more often.
So far, 37 is as long as any player currently playing in the Premier League.
Chelsea's Thiago Silva — just over a month away from his 38th birthday — Ronaldo,Lukasz Fabianskiand four full-backs Top of the listAshley Young joined him.
The immediate answer to why ancients like Kent all-rounder Darren Stephens, 46, cricket is still successful today is that the sport is physically demanding for participants. It doesn't require much ability.
Cricketers keep playing a little longer, but the game doesn't always make it easier for them.
Equally important is the comparison of how much money they have made, injuries, and the intensity of their matches and training.
It's a fair bet that Joe Root isn't earning his tenth, nay, one-twentieth of Ronaldo's salary.
Obviously, Root's name is generally recognized only in perhaps 15 countries, but Ronaldo's name is known in as many countries as our Queen's name.
Ronaldo is an essential variant in that he remains mostly fit, and is expected to play high-speed, high-class football for a few more years. maybe you can.
If he slows down, his marker may catch up with him and end his career on the spot. Don't assume that no one will try.
Cricket is not a game, nor is it a party without injury. Fast bowlers regularly have back, side, hamstring troubles, poor feet, quick balls hitting parts through paper-thin defenses , and eyes watering. increase.
A blow catches the batter from above his level on the pad to the harshness of the helmet. Dementia is a common problem among older cricketers, as is central backs and heading specialists.
On average, soccer players are much healthier than cricketers. In Nottinghamshire he has two or his three players and a pint and a pie look good, but that's breakfast.
There are many people who train hard. In football, they all are, and pints and pies on the eve of a game are considered by many managers to be effectively federal crimes.
Graham Taylor was acting as a spy on the cricket coach and asking him to tell him if he saw a player clubbing the night before a match. I don't think so.
But while football is a business, more fierce than any business I know of, cricket remains largely a competitive pleasure.
Some give themselves up to difficult, indeed, highly desirable careers with the demise of wealth and fame. The other works well enough for Exponent to give him the opportunity to mock his teammates for the rest of his life.
