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Stephen Harmison and the wide man's burden

Harmison's hostility is a big part of England's gameplan. But confidence is the key ? and he's losing it

Stephen Brenkley
Sunday 26 January 2003 01:00 GMT
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There is one enormous weakness so far in England's belatedly hatched master plan for the World Cup. It can almost be seen in the minds of opponents as they ponder suggestions that England could beat them. "Oh, yes," they seem to say, "by you and whose Harmie?"

It all depends which Harmie turns up, Stephen Harmison that is, bowler of extraordinary pace and utterly uncertain direction. If it is the one England are praying for, their rivals had better start putting their hands together and looking skywards. If it is the one who has, as it were, lent a new dimension to the bowling of wides, they can start stacking up the runs and waiting for the extra balls.

Harmison was always destined to play a significant role in this winter's tour. He and the unfortunate Simon Jones were picked for the simple reason that they could bowl fast. Jones suffered his terrible knee injury on the first day of the First Test in Perth and Harmison's role assumed more importance.

Not long afterwards, the selectors dreamt up their master plan, there being just enough room left to add it to their previous plans, written on the back of a discarded David Graveney fag packet. It read that Harmison could give England extra strength by bowling his thunderbolts in the middle of a one-day innings, unsettling batsmen and getting them out, where once they had settled to milking four an over off the dibbly-dobbly merchants.

In theory, it is an extremely sound policy, but it might have worked better in practice if it had been initially tried somewhat earlier than three months before the World Cup. The result is that poor Harmison has bowled a series of wides. In Hobart he sent down 11 of them, in Sydney it was nine with two no-balls.

In Adelaide it was three plus a no-ball before he was put out of his misery after two overs, only for him to drop two catches shortly afterwards. Not long after that he slipped and injured his ankle, which kept him out of the latter stages of the VB Series. England insist that they will stick by him.

"I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me when those catches went down after everything else that had happened," Harmison said as he reflected on his performances last week. "I just feel I am letting the lads down. I have really struggled. The confidence went again in Hobart. I probably shouldn't have played there because I was unwell the night before the game. It was just the chance of playing a one-day international against Australia." Harmison is a bashful and agreeable man not given to bouts of exaggerating his talent but aware of the gift he has. He feels strongly that he has let his mates down with those wides.

The team, to their credit, have supported him. Not everything about this side has been cordial – there are too many fringe players to whom the management has not given fair consideration, for example – but they have refused to let their mate Harmie be singled out.

"I have had some really good friends on this trip who have seen when you have got down," he said. "They just lift you up a little bit. I wouldn't say I'm still going strong. But I never thought I'd still be here talking at the end of January."

Harmison has a reputation for being homesick, forged when he went away with the England Under-19 team and was back home within 10 days. But this winter he has stuck to it when he would have had every reason to dash to the airport.

The inconsistency of his bowling is only part of it. He should have been home by now because he was selected originally only for the Test squad. He is now on a trip he never remotely expected to make. But the biggest reason for Harmison to have a desire to be home is his second daughter, Abbie, born early in December. He has yet to set eyes on her.

His wife and elder daughter have been out in the past few weeks. "I think about her all the time," he said. "But the lads have been brilliant. All we have to do is keep going for the next five weeks or so. It doesn't seem long, does it? But then you stick it on to the three months we've already been away."

The good news for Harmison is that he has been given "compassionate leave" by England to go home and see Abbie before rejoining the World Cup party in South Africa on 1 February.

He is unable to concentrate on his bowling because of his ankle. It is not thought to be imperilling his World Cup chances, but he is still limping. "The first thing I thought of when I slipped and heard a noise was Simon Jones," he said. "It's a bit sore but I've been working hard in the gym. I'm hopeful I can get out of this. I did it after Lilac Hill and Perth earlier in the tour. I honestly don't know what causes it. It's more a mind thing than a physical thing, but once you start falling away it's difficult. You bowl a wide, walk back and think, 'Here we go again'.

"I've had a long chat with Steve Bull, the sports psychologist, and that was helpful. A lot of things get in your mind. It wasn't rocket-science stuff. Just concentrate on positive things."

In so many ways, Harmison has been the find of this tour for England. The shy, homesick boy from a former Durham pit village where football rules has overcome so much in his nature that he deserves to be a champion. "It's been hard work sometimes, but the challenge of playing Australia is a big thing," he said. "The Test matches are what I feel I will be judged by because that's what I came here for. It hasn't gone as well as I would have liked, because nine wickets in four Tests is not the best record. But I showed that I've got a bit of fire."

Indeed he has. Steve Waugh can testify to that. In the late morning of the fifth day at Melbourne Harmison bowled a classic fast-bowler's over to Australia's captain. It included plays and misses, an edged catch to which there was no appeal and a legitimate catch off a no-ball.

Which is why Harmison knows what he has to do. "I will not be cutting my speed. I can become a 135kph bowler, bowl 10 overs straight, but I wouldn't take those middle-order wickets that you want. I can change it, I can help it."

If he can propel the fire to the areas where it blazes most fiercely, England may have a Harmie Army.

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