Steve Harmison

Stephen James Harmison is an England cricketer, and a leading Test match fast bowler. He plays county cricket for Durham. With his height (6′4″) he can extract pace and bounce from most pitches. While poor form led to him being dropped from the team in New Zealand in 2007, he returned to the England side in 2008 against South Africa.

Harmison was first selected for an England squad in May 2000 during the tour to England by Zimbabwe, but did not play. As part of an ECB National Academy touring team that also contained Andrew Strauss, Ian Bell and Robert Key, Harmison showed clear signs of his ability in the tour of Australia in 2001/2002. In August 2002, Harmison made his Test match debut at Trent Bridge against India, replacing the injured Simon Jones.

Originally lacking somewhat in control, he bowled seven consecutive wides in the first match of the tour of Australia, against the ACB Chairman’s XI’s at Lilac Hill in 2002.

However, promising performances later in the tour saw him named in the World Cup squad, although he wasn’t used in any of the matches. He was then awarded with a six month central contract by the ECB, but this was not renewed in September 2003.

Despite media complaints about his ability, he was named in the England squad for the winter tour to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, partially due to injuries to other players. Harmison gave a man-of-the-match performance in the opening Test against Bangladesh, taking 9 wickets for 79 on a slow wicket, before succumbing to a back injury and missing the matches against Sri Lanka. Despite the injury, he’d done enough to be selected for the winter tour to the West Indies, and it was there he sealed his arrival, taking 7 wickets at the cost of just 12 runs as the West Indies collapsed to their lowest ever Test total of 47 all out. Harmison went on to win the Man-of-the-Series award after taking 23 wickets in the four Tests.

In summer 2005 Harmison was part of the England team that regained The Ashes from Australia. He started the series well, with a hostile opening spell in the 1st Test, and although later outshone by Flintoff and Jones, exerted pressure and claimed important wickets throughout. His most important and dazzling wicket some might say was the slower-ball yorker with which he bowled Michael Clarke. Harmison also took the final wicket of Michael Kasprowicz the next day, caught behind by Geraint Jones, to turn around an almost certain 2-0 series deficit into a tied series and with it the momentum of the series.

In July 2006, during the series against Pakistan, Harmison took 6-19 off just 13 overs in the first innings as Pakistan were skittled for just 119. In the second he again shared the 10 wickets with Monty Panesar, taking 5-57. He thus took his first 10 wicket haul in a match, taking 11-76. This came in his 45th Test match, and was the best match bowling figures at Old Trafford since Jim Laker’s famous 19-90, exactly 50 years previously.

During the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy Harmison’s form came under scrutiny, and he was dropped from England’s final match against the West Indies.

In November 2006, Harmison bowled the first ball of the eagerly awaited 2006-07 Ashes series at The Gabba in Brisbane, but humiliatingly erred by bowling a wide straight to Andrew Flintoff at second slip. His lacklustre opening spell seemed to set the tone for what proved to be a dismal first day of the series for England and for Harmison in particular. After another below par performance in Adelaide he would find some form in Perth with 4/48 in the 1st innings.

On 21 December 2006, three months before the 2007 Cricket World Cup, Harmison announced his retirement from One Day International cricket after being left out of the squad for the one-day series in Australia. In October 2007, Harmison travelled to South Africa to play domestic cricket before heading to Sri Lanka as part of the England test squad. After a shaky start, however, he suffered a back injury on the first day of the second warm up match, having taken one wicket. He was not included in the squad for the first test, however he took three wickets in the second. On 21 August 2008, it was announced that Harmison would return to playing One Day International cricket against South Africa.

On 7th August 2008 Harmison returned to the England Test team for the Fourth Test match versus South Africa. He took two wickets for 49 runs in helping England to dismiss South Africa for 194 on the first day of the match. Harmison’s first ball nearly took a wicket. In England’s first innings Harmison hit a career high test match score of 49 not out. He ran fellow teammate Monty Panesar out trying to reach 50. After the test series on the 21st of August, Harmison came out of ODI retirement after being persuaded by the new England captain, Kevin Pietersen. On his ODI return versus South Africa on 22nd August, he toook two wickets for 43 runs, this was crucial in England winning the match.

Personal information
Full name Stephen James Harmison
Nickname Harmy, Grievous Bodily Harmison
Born 23 October 1978 (1978-10-23)
Ashington, Northumberland, England
Height 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Batting style Right-handed
Bowling style Right-arm fast
Role Fast bowler
International information
National side England
Test debut 8 August 2002: v India
ODI debut 17 December 2002: v Sri Lanka

Steve Harmison Against West Indies

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 8th, 2009 at 10:06 am and is filed under England Players. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.