England’s all-time leading Test wicket-taker James Anderson is a surprise target for Major League Cricket.
BBC Sport understands senior figures with at least one MLC team have had their interest pricked by Anderson’s comments last month about a return to white-ball cricket.
The unnamed franchise are now set to explore whether the 42-year-old would be interested in participating in the third edition of the T20 tournament in the United States next year.
Anderson could earn about £135,000 from a short stint in MLC, which lured some stellar names from the game for the 2024 edition.
The most high profile of those was Australia captain Pat Cummins, who has a lucrative contract with the San Francisco Unicorns until 2027.
Fellow Australians Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell and Travis Head were all part of the star-studded Washington Freedom team, coached by Ricky Ponting, which won this year’s tournament.
Anderson, who finished with 704 Test wickets, retired from international cricket following the first Test against West Indies at Lord’s in July.
He immediately joined the England backroom team and remains on a central contract with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) until the end of September.
Anderson said last week he would continue in his role as a fast-bowling mentor for England’s Test series against Pakistan in October and was planning to join the side for their tour of New Zealand in December.
Anderson’s last competitive T20 match was in 2014, when he played in the Blast for Lancashire.
His decision to dedicate the last 10 years of his career to red-ball cricket means he has never played franchise cricket overseas but he believes he is “fit enough” and “good enough” to play the format.
The league, which has influential backers including Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella, has expressed a desire to lure some of England’s top players to the competition.
England World Cup winners Liam Plunkett and Jason Roy have both taken part in the past two versions of MLC.
In May 2023, Roy gave up his ECB white-ball contract worth up to £70,000 to sign a two-year deal with the Los Angeles Knight Riders worth £300,000.
MLC launched in 2023 with a 19-game season but will expand to 34 games in 2025. The tournament was granted official List A status in May.
