England legend Jimmy Anderson takes on new cricket challenge in ITALY just days after retirement announcement amid fury from Lancashire members

Jimmy Anderson is throwing himself into T10 franchise cricket – as co-owner of Napoli Knights in an unlikely new Italian tournament starting next month.

Less than 24 hours after a tense meeting at Old Trafford, where members expressed their anger at Lancashire’s recent decision not to renew his contract for 2027, it emerged that Anderson and former county team-mate Luke Sutton were joining forces for the Italia T10 competition.

Italy took part in this year’s T20 World Cup in South Asia, briefly giving England a scare at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens before losing their group game by 24 runs.

And Anderson insisted: ‘There’s a huge opportunity to help raise the profile of cricket in Italy. Of course, we want Napoli Knights to be competitive and challenge for the title, but we also want to contribute to something that continues to grow well beyond the tournament itself. I can’t wait to get involved.’

Teams from Bologna, Florence, Milan, Naples, Rome and Venice will play all their games in Rome over 12 days from November 18. The competition founder, former Surrey batsman Nadeem Shahid, said: ‘I played against Jimmy and Luke enough times to know how competitive they are, so having them as owners of the Napoli Knights is a massive statement for Italia T10.’

The news comes after Lancashire members challenged the club’s incoming director of cricket Paul Farbrace – who joined the meeting via video link from his holiday in the USA – over the decision to let Anderson go, despite taking 50 championship wickets at just 17 each this summer.

Farbrace made it clear he took full responsibility for releasing Anderson, and won some sceptical members over by saying he was motivated by building a team capable of winning the county championship in the next four years.

The club will look into arranging a possible farewell event for Anderson after one member pointed out that fans had been denied the chance to say goodbye. Whether he will be in the mood to play ball is unclear.

Meanwhile, South Africa were dismissed for 329 by Australia on a topsy-turvy opening day of the third and deciding Test at Cape Town. Having been asked to bat, openers Aiden Markram and Marques Ackerman put on 158, before the hosts collapsed from 203 for one to 232 for six.

Then, after Ryan Rickelton and Marco Jansen added 95, Mitchell Starc took the last four wickets in six balls to finish with six for 72.

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