England’s record wicket-taker James Anderson enters Big Bash draft

England’s all-time leading wicket-taker James Anderson has entered into the Big Bash draft.

Earlier this month, seamer Anderson, 42, played his first T20 match for 11 years and took three wickets as Lancashire beat Durham in their Vitality Blast North Group fixture at Chester-le-Street.

Anderson – who retired from Test cricket last summer having taken 704 wickets, the most successful pace bowler in the format – turns 43 at the end of July.

He went unsold in the auction for the 2025 Indian Premier League during November and was not picked up in the Hundred draft during March.

If selected in Thursday’s Big Bash draft by one of the eight clubs, Anderson would be the oldest overseas player to feature in the Australian tournament and the second oldest of all time behind Brad Hogg.

England paceman Jofra Archer has also put himself into the draft, along with Sam Curran.

Zak Crawley and Liam Livingstone have a nominated availability of between four and six games over the course of the tournament, which runs from December 21 through to the end of January 2026.

Pakistan’s T20 talents Mohammad Rizwan and Shaheen Afridi are also up for auction.

New Zealander Kane Williamson, though, is only available for a maximum of three Big Bash games.

“The quality of the pool certainly vindicates our decision to bring this year’s draft forward to allow clubs to get a fast start on locking in overseas stars so they have certainty before they use the other mechanisms to build their teams,” Cricket Australia’s executive general manager Alistair Dobson said on www.cricket.com.au.