England’s secret to success lies in dressing room’s niggly banters: Anderson

James Anderson says dressing room humor and banters are helping England to achieve success at the international stage.

London: England fast bowler James Anderson has said the dressing room humor and banters are helping him as well as England to achieve success at the international stage.

Anderson is a great fan of dressing-room banter, especially with fellow bowler Graeme Swann, which is why he has enjoyed getting involved in this year’s Sport Relief. He is currently at number three in International Council of Cricket (ICC) bowling rankings behind Dale Steyn and Saeed Ajmal, whereas Swann is at number six and they both like to pull each other’s leg over this in the dressing room. “We have a great atmosphere in the dressing room, which you need to have, especially in the tough conditions here in Dubai. We have a lot of banter. It’s a healthy rivalry and it never gets too serious,” The Mirror quoted Anderson, as saying. “The biggest thing we niggle each other about is world ranking. I’m slightly ahead of him, but for a while he was ahead of me. So there is a lot of niggly banter,” he said. Anderson believes having a good laugh in the dressing room is beneficial for the team as it keeps their morale high. “Sometimes he will stand at the slip when I’m about to bowl and say: ‘Well, just be careful – I might not catch it.’ That’s the thing that makes me smile and it’s good for morale. You need that in a dressing room. You have to be able to have a laugh with everyone,” he added. ANI