Stuart Broad has blasted Lancashire's decision to not renew James Anderson's contract as "disrespectful". The Red Rose county opted against offering him a new deal for 2027 despite the 44-year-old having a strong season in which he took 50 wickets at an average of 17 amid their struggles in Division Two of the County Championship. Anderson released a statement on social media which confirmed his Lancashire departure was not what he wanted and that if it was up to him, it "would not have ended like this".
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player For Broad, while he understands there has been a change of leadership at Lancashire, he believes the decision has been handled badly by those at the top. "It is a pretty disrespectful way for Lancashire to deliver that news to him," Broad said on the For the Love of Cricket podcast. "He met with the new chief executive and the new director of cricket Paul Farbrace and they said they would not be offering him a new contract.
I get that they are new in the role so they could not have done that in August and said, 'sign off, give the fans your goodbye, have your last bowl at Old Trafford', all that sort of stuff. "But there must be some leadership within that club that could have planned that. "I get that the thought process is probably they can get two half-decent cricketers for the one with losing that salary.
"They have finished second bottom of the Championship, had a woeful season, they have been poor for a few years, and they need to improve. "But Jimmy got 50 wickets at 17 - there are not many bowlers in the country that did that so it does not surprise me that there have already been some counties on the phone to see what his interest levels are." Broad also found it intriguing that in his statement, Anderson did not immediately retire and would not be surprised if he is weighing up other options. Not only that, he was firm that if Anderson wanted one more year with Lancashire, they should have just found a way to make it happen.
"I don't know what is next for him. His statement was quite interesting because he didn't retire," he added. "He might look at other options.
He still offers a lot and a lot of counties would want him. He is still one of the best bowlers in the country. "I didn't like it from Lancashire to be honest.
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