All right, so there’s still a few yards left, but in all likelihood, sometime on Saturday, barring any small miracles at Trent Bridge or Taunton, the final day of this summer of foul weather and fairly glorious uncertainty will see Durham breast the tape first and hence carry off the County Championship pennant for the first time. In which case, we will have witnessed one of the more improbable turnarounds in recent cricket history. As a consequence, Steve Harmison, the man whose wickets are currently serving as a modicum of compensation for the agonies north-east soccer fans are enduring at the hands of the fast bowler’s beloved Newcastle United, will be able to spend at least the next couple of months blowing enthusiastic raspberries in the general vicinity of the press box.
Tucking into humble pie is part of a journalist’s lot. The tendency to be pressed into seeing the world in white and black, and ignoring those endless shades of grey, all too often incites rash, often inflammatory judgements that dispense with humanity while expertly, if barely, skirting the laws of libel. And because he can be so good, so intimidating, so damned irresistible, Harmison has attracted considerably more than his fair share of invective. The fact that, at heart, he is both articulate and a complete sweetie somehow makes him an even easier target.
When he and Matthew Hoggard were dropped by England after the first Test in New Zealand six months ago, it appeared to all intents and purposes that Harmy had cooked his own goose for the umpteenth and final time. Always a reluctant traveller, he seemed keener than ever to be anywhere else but on a cricket field, and bowled accordingly, the menace reduced to that of a toothless tabby. The arrival of a fourth child was proving a distraction, sure, but could the selectors really be expected to maintain any vestige of faith in someone of such apparent frailty? Forget those feline metaphors. If the caricature of a fast bowler is a rip-snorting, fire-breathing, no-holds-barring Tyrannosaurus Rex with a sturdy pair of arms, here was a Brontosaurus apt to intimidate purely by dint of size, and prone only to occasional lapses from strict vegetarianism.
Stuart Broad and James Anderson stepped into the breach with such effectiveness that England rebounded to take the series. Surely there would be no way back now for this most exasperating of cricketers, no stay of execution. Yet Harmison remained a contracted player, and the new selection trio hung on in there, consoling themselves no doubt in the knowledge of his uniqueness. After all, when the moon is in the seventh house, the planets are adequately aligned and the mood takes him, no active bowler can generate the same sort of bullying, leg-jellying bounce. Go back to Durham and take some wickets, they told him. The worst that could happen would be that he would respond like so many before him and fail to muster sufficient enthusiasm for the dimmer lights and lesser stages.
Instead, back on the green, green grass of the Riverside, he rumbled in with venom time after time while Hoggard, given the same brief, struggled to find his groove for Yorkshire. Again and again Harmison struck when it mattered, in all formats, and with sufficient consist ency to earn a Test recall against South Africa. The series may have been lost, the tourists mentally on the plane, but with the exception of Andrew Flintoff’s rediscovered mojo, there was no more rewarding sight for English eyes all season than the bite and spite Freddie’s pal brought with him to The Oval, along with that oft-elusive rhythm and control.
That Kevin Pietersen was able to talk Harmison into rescinding his premature retirement from one-day internationals testified both to the new captain’s powers of persuasion and the bowler’s newly relocated peace of mind and renewed ambition. And while the rest of the contracted quicks took a breather once the ODI series was won, Harmison kept his engine going, bringing Durham to the brink of history. Maybe the prospect of those Stanford millions turbo-charged his battery, but so what? He’s in it for the quids, not the kicks.
Speaking as one who had written him off, it gives me an unseemly degree of pleasure to tuck into that humble pie. It’ll taste even juicier if he can help bring back the Ashes.
I always felt that the best thing that could happen to Harmison was to lose his central contract - always a far better bowler with something to prove; his annus mirabalis came in the wake of reports the England management had wearied of his attitude after a truncated Bangladesh tour. Place secured, thereafter followed by years of decline.
Come 2008, lo and behold, his livelihood is under threat again, and he rediscovers his mojo.
A coincidence? I think not. The solution is quite clearly to keep this guy well away from any potential comfort zone, and force him to prove himself each and every time. It's unfortunate, but necessary - he has all the qualities to be by far the best fast bowler in the world bar one; the ability to turn it on day in, day out, year after year, and not just when his career is on the line.
Posted by: Jamie Dowling on 09/27/2008
After Harmison had a Ritchie Blackmore-like strop and threw his toys in Geoffrey Boycott's direction I too thought he was past it and said as much elsewhere; if he was to get back into the test reckoning and repair his reputation he needed to go back to county cricket, take wickets and scare the hell out of the opposition batsmen, not try his luck in a slanging match.
He has done that. Where that motivation came from may be open to question. He still has much work to do to repair his reputation - "doing a Harmison" is still club cricket speak for a ball that endangers first slip rather than the batsman and admitting you're scared to play international cricket is a laugh for opposition batsmen - but maybe now the England management have, whether by accident or design, found the recipe to get the best out of Harmison: no guarantees because he's in the last chance saloon (I hate that phrase but couldn't think of anything better).
Posted by: tinker on 09/27/2008
it amazes me that the english talk about harmison as some former ashes winning champion.
If an Australian player averaged over 40 with the ball in ashes contests you guys would be laughing at him yet you seriously think harmi is some sort of proven performer in big contests?
his record against the top teams in cricket is awful.
Posted by: Fred on 11/18/2008
tinker should look at Lee's figures in the '05 Ashes...
Rob Steen is a sportswriter and senior lecturer in sports journalism at
the University of Brighton whose books include biographies of Desmond
Haynes and David Gower (1995 Cricket Society Literary Award winner) and
500-1 - The Miracle of Headingley '81. His 2004 investigation for The
Wisden Cricketer, Whatever Happened to the Black Cricketer?, won the
EU Journalism Award For diversity, against discrimination. Sports
Journalism - A Multimedia Primer, his latest offering, will be
published by Routledge in August.
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