There may be those who felt I overstepped the mark when I vented my frustration on the field at Trent Bridge on Friday.
There is no doubt the first day of the second Test ranks among the toughest I’ve experienced.On the plus side, I managed two wickets and a feeling that I had bowled well. On the minus, a couple of edges flying through the slips and one lbw shout against Darren Sammy, which I thought was extremely close.
I reacted. I let Sammy and Marlon Samuels know exactly what I thought of my luck and though my discussion with umpire Aleem Dar was friendly, he did warn me to be careful not to get too carried away.
Flashpoint: Aleem Dar speaks to James Anderson at Trent BridgeI appreciated Aleem Dar was passing on what he saw as helpful advice and was doing his job. My view on showing emotion on the pitch is that the authorities need to be careful not to discourage aggression completely as this is the very lifeblood of the game.
Indeed, I fear there is a real danger of the game becoming over-sanitised should it continue to try to discourage people expressing their passion and fight.
Some people just want us to play a nice game of cricket, out in the sun, in the park — but the players in the middle are not like that.
Exchange of views: Anderson and Darren Sammy discuss matters at the creaseTo me, along with all the skill, athleticism and tactical awareness that make this the best of all games, there has to be a place in the game for good old- fashioned aggression.
All sides know it, expect it and actually relish it. Marlon certainly understood.
He knows there is nothing personal between us. But when you have batted in the series as long as he has, you are bound to be on the end of more chat than those who come and go more quickly.We are in fierce competition out there, we are both trying to win a game of cricket for our country and sometimes tensions run high.
Reaction: Anderson cannot hide his dismay as Marlon Samuels adds to his run tallyThere is no point in playing the game if you are not going to throw yourself into it heart and soul. But when you are out there in the thick of it, you are not thinking about the cameras being on you. You are not thinking about anything except the battle you are in.
Surely the crowd want passion and aggression in their cricket. They don’t want players to be robots. The game has to have that red-blooded element or it can become bland, sanitised and boring.Of course, I’m not advocating full scale punch-ups.
But when Marlon Samuels came off at the end of his innings on Friday night, though every single one of us had been into him and ‘chirped’ him and his team-mates on the field, every single one of us shook his hand and said ‘well done’ — and that is the way the game should be played.
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