Steven Harmison has left us expecting an impending retirement after the announcement of his omission from the 16 man touring party of South Africa. But how will this enigma of English cricket go down in Test history - a great bowler, or someone who never fulfilled his potential?
Harmison has always been a player whose promise has outweighed his performance. His pace and sharp bounce from a good length has often lead to him being thought of as one of the most feared bowlers in World cricket. However, he has also been dogged with constant criticisms of his attitude and commitment; this has been due to wanting to go back to his beloved North East when on tour, or perhaps just the mere face of despair while meandering back to his bowling mark.
Despite this I would like to think he has gone a long way to ridding himself of this tag in recent times. Since being dropped for the Wellington test in 2008, he has fervently tried to regain his Test place, whether playing for his county, Durham, or trying to play more cricket provincially in South Africa at a time when his talents were meant to be waning. He has been rewarded with a number of test recalls, as recently as the last two Ashes tests, with success to a certain degree, but has never been able to maintain that consistency of 2004 when he was the world’s premier paceman, and subsequently has been unable to quite make that test place his own, with England preferring to move on and try some new faces. I am sure Graeme Smith and co will rest a little easier at the prospect of facing Liam Plunkett rather than Harmison this winter.
‘Unfulfilled potential’ seems a massively ill-deserved tag to place on a player who has in fact achieved so much. There has probably been no bowler of the modern era that batsmen have least wanted to face. He currently stands as England’s 10th most successful wicket taker, with 226 wickets from just 64 matches - not exactly bad for someone with ‘unfulfilled potential’.
Personally, I hope Harmison will be long remembered as one of the best of his generation. Images of him ripping through the West Indies at Sabina Park, or Pakistan at Old Trafford, or maybe his truly unrelenting and vicious bowling at Lords in the infamous 2005 Ashes should be ones that spring to mind rather than a man overweighed with expectation, losing line and length to the extent that first slip receives the ball. And even if Harmison has not lived up to our expectations, then that should not detract from what he has achieved in a fantastic career.
I for one will be very sad to see the back of Harmy.
Charlie Houghton
19/10/09
