Former England Test captain Sir Alastair Cook said he would be interested to see if anyone picks veteran pacer James Anderson in the upcoming mega auction for the 2025 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Anderson, England's leading wicket-taker with 704 scalps, retired from international cricket this year after playing in the Lord's Test against the West Indies in July. And that at the base price of INR 1.25 crore, he has opted in for the IPL 2025 mega auction.
Anderson last played in a T20 game in 2014, and till this date, he never played in the IPL. The IPL 2025 mega auction will be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on November 24 and 25 and sent a longlist of 1574 players.
"He'll be interested to see if anyone picks him up. He's just trying to cram as much cricket as possible into his life now. If he doesn't get picked up that might well be it for his cricket, but if he does what an opportunity, what an experience."
He's played such a lot of international cricket but he's never played for a franchise, Cook said to TNT Sports. I say that might be it, but there may be other franchise tournaments he's about to put his name forward for, so it's interesting.
England are well-prepared to face West Indies in their last job before Brendon McCullum takes the reins as coach for England's white-ball team next January, in which the side will play Champions Trophy in February-March.
Cook spoke on how England might perform under McCullam in the white-ball game going ahead. "What I know talking to the guys in the England Test team is that McCullum's got a tremendous ability to unite a team and push it into one direction, and having the ability to seem to get the best out of individuals so they are then performing at their peak.".
So I think he will do that, and it'll be interesting to see what side he feels is England's best. He has probably been involved in selection quite a bit, but at the minute we haven't played the best side that we can for quite some time because the fixture schedule's been so tight.
"We'll get a period now where they might be able to play their best one-day side or as close as they can to, and then we'll get an idea of what McCullum wants and the players he thinks are going to lead England in the ICC Champions Trophy and then pushing forward."
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