First thought: James Anderson’s bid for IPL stardom definitely won’t work. Well, it probably won’t. It shouldn’t. But of course it’s Jimmy, so there’s always a chance it will, however infinitesimal that may be. It’s quite remarkable what an admirably pure love of cricket, addiction to winning and bloodcurdling desire for vengeance can achieve in the right hands.

Ever since walking out of Manchester’s Dakota Hotel in late April having been informed of his state-mandated defenestration, you get the sense Anderson has been plotting his revenge tour.

Ace that final Lord’s Test, peddle the book reminding everyone you now permanently have a knife protruding from your spine, then declare for the Indian Premier League mega auction. That’ll show ’em.

Anderson has never had any interest in going out at the top of his game, in dying a young man’s death. He wants to be stretchered off a green wicket on a cloudy day after a massive coronary induced by celebrating another five-fer.

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And so, aged 42 and having never played franchise cricket – or even any T20 for a decade – the Burnley Express has become one of 1,574 players to sign up for the IPL longlist ahead of its biggest draft since 2008.

This will be whittled down to a shortlist after consultation with the franchises, with 204 slots remaining across the squads. Anderson will go under the hammer with a base price of 1.25 crore rupees, around £115,000, and a healthy dose of intrigue.

“I watch the Hundred and see the ball swinging around in the first 20 balls, and I think, ‘I can do that, I can still do that’,” Anderson told The Final Word Podcast in August. “I don’t know if that is a viable option, to maybe see if I could do a job in white-ball cricket?

“The bowling thing is still a definite option for me, the way my body feels right now, the way my head is. From a skills point of view, the way Test cricket’s gone… I don’t think that’d be an issue. But I don’t know how much people would want a 42-year-old bowler in their team.”

This will be the £115,000 question – will anyone take the punt on someone who hasn’t played competitive cricket since July? The IPL doesn’t exactly have an aversion to paying waning or fully-waned former greats to act as shirt-touting, eyeball-attracting figureheads – MS Dhoni is still contracted as a last-over terminator at 43 – but is Anderson still an attractive enough prospect?

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The thing is – he just might be, especially with the simmering undertones of petty revenge and glorious potential embarrassment for the England hierarchy. There’s no doubt that however unlikely Anderson running in for the Chennai Super Kings is come March, if he does, it will raise some uncomfortable questions for Brendon McCullum and Rob Key.

And given this mega auction might involve multi-year contracts, if a 43-year-old Anderson is still playing post-Ashes in 2026, his Test retirement will seem not so much premature as totally unnecessary.

Yes, white-ball cricket isn’t nearly as physically or mentally taxing and, yes, his elite numbers were reducing, but a disappointing result in Australia next winter, or injuries to a couple of current bowlers, and potentially humiliating questions will be asked.

But above all, this could be huge fun. Anderson in the IPL would be appointment viewing for English cricket fans in a way the competition never has been before. If anyone is going to make this work, it’s Jimmy.