JAMES Anderson has spoken of his fear at receiving death threats ahead of England's controversial World Cup fixture in Harare.

And the Burnley fast bowler said the decision not to travel for last week's scheduled fixture against Zimbabwe was the right one.

"I wouldn't say I was relieved, but it was the right decision in the end for the safety of the players," said Anderson, speaking to the Lancashire Evening Telegraph from his base in Port Elizabeth.

"It was just disappointing that they gave the game to Zimbabwe because it would have been nice to play for the points elsewhere.

"The threats were made to all the players, and their families, which made the situation worse. And there were a lot of phone calls between me and my parents to check that we were all okay.

"Hopefully everything's been sorted out now, but it was a scary time.

"We always took the threats seriously because of what was said.

"We were told that it was a hoax instead of a threat, but later on we found out the organisation who had made the threats did exist and it was for real."

Anderson said much of the squad's time had been taken up training for the rest of the fixtures against Namibia, Australia, India and Pakistan before they managed to play their first game of the tournament.

"It got a bit boring because we just wanted to go out and start playing the matches," he said.

But all those sessions in the nets didn't do Anderson or the rest of the team any harm as the 20-year-old took record breaking figures of four for 25 from his 10 overs against Holland on Sunday.

"You never get used to doing things like that," he said. "I suppose I'm a bit of a perfectionist and I'm aiming to get every ball in the right place and cut down the bad deliveries, but hopefully that will come the more games I play.

"It was just good to get out there and actually play a game, and it was a comfortable win in the end for us.

"I know it was only Holland, but they gave India a good game the other day so we knew they wouldn't be the easiest opposition.

"I think everyone bowled well that day and Holland didn't get a chance to score that easily.

"But the record I've set is hard to take in.

"I did quite a lot of interviews after the game but it's not until a day or so that you realise what it is you've done."