Published: 05/03/2010 11:07:32 | Modified: 05/03/2010 11:30:31
Author: Bruce Talbot | All Contributors
Aussie trip leaves Anyon raring to go
James Anyon hopes his move to Sussex will help him to enjoy the most productive phase of his career.
The 26-year-old met up with his new team-mates for the first time recently after signing a two-year deal at Hove.
Anyon left Warwickshire, even though he still had a year left on his contract, in search of more regular cricket at the end of last season.
A shoulder injury kept him out for six weeks in 2009 and he only played two Championship games for the Bears and one for Surrey on loan.
After three months in Australia, training with former Bears’ team-mate Tim Ambrose in Sydney, Anyon is raring to go. He said: “I don’t think there are too many better counties I could have joined.
“I have always enjoyed playing at Hove and Sussex have been so successful in recent years. Looking round at the quality of the players here there’s no reason why that shouldn’t continue.
“I could have stayed at Warwickshire but (coach) Ashley Giles told me there could be limited opportunities this season. I have got to a stage in my career when I have to play. If you look at my career, when I have had a run in the side I have done well.
“(Sussex coach) Mark Robinson has an idea of what he wants from me and the role he sees me playing which fits in with my own goals.”
Anyon’s 112 first-class wickets, since he made his Warwickshire debut in 2003, include no fewer than 22 against Sussex spread across five games.
One of his victims, when Sussex suffered what has become annual thrashing at Edgbaston in 2007, was opener Chris Nash.
Like Sussex’s other new signing Monty Panesar, he is a former Loughborough UCCE team-mate of Anyon’s, and Nash said: “Having faced Jimmy quite a bit I think it’s a great signing for us. Because he’s got quite a whippy action he doesn’t have to charge in and that means he should be able to bowl a lot of overs for us.
“He will swing the new ball and reverse it when it gets older and he’s the sort of bowler who will keep going all day.”
With Corey Collymore and Robin Martin-Jenkins fulfilling similar roles in the attack, it should enable the likes of Yasir Arafat and Panesar to attack from the other end as Sussex launch their bid for promotion.
“Hopefully the main thing I can offer is control,” said Anyon, “and an ability to bowl a lot of overs from one end. I also want to play a part in one-day cricket as well. You watched Sussex be so successful last season and you almost felt a bit jealous, and so I’d love to be part of that this season.”