Dropping him will allow everyone to find out how badly he wants to play for England. If he starts next season by taking a bagful of wickets for Durham, we'll know that he's worked hard and is desperate to get back into the England side. If he has an ordinary season and shows no sign of improvement, we'll know that he doesnt really care one way or the other, and is happy playing County Cricket.
Originally posted by Mr Watermelon: Apparently Athers interviewed him yesterday and the Q and A was something like this-
Are you looking forward to going home? Yes
Will you miss being around the team environment? No
What will you do to prepare for the upcoming Summer? I dont know...Whatever Duncan Fletcher tells me, I guess.
Drop him. He clearly doesnt care. All the talent in the world, but his heart isnt in it.
Would you have been happier with some politically correct BS (the type regularly churned out by public figures) which doesn't mean a thing?
I heard Slater describe the above interview in the commentary, who said Harmison was a bit negative in his answers. Clearly honesty and a bit of candor never gets much credit.
Because Harmison feels the above way doesn't mean he doesn't care about his bowling. It just means he honestly described what he felt. Good on him
What will you do to prepare for the upcoming Summer? I dont know...Whatever Duncan Fletcher tells me, I guess.
If Steve Harmison does what Fletcher wants then why won't the sook take some responaability and open the bowling with the new ball? Or is Fletcher so think he hasn't asked Harmison about the issue?
If we can find anyone better then we should drop him. Hes averaged 35+ for most of his england career bar a few good series against the Windies and NZ.
Even during his shocking series in South Africa, Harmison's key failing (dropping short) tended to result in a superficially unremarkable economy rate... and this has been partially true of this series - the stats reveal he's been bowling SOME dross.. but not just how ludicrously short he's often been bowling when not serving up four-balls!
Originally posted by Mr Watermelon: But he's basically saying he doesnt really care.
Where is he saying that?
The other day, when interviewed, he talked about how disappointed he was with the way his bowling has gone on this tour, but it wasn't down to a lack of effort. "I'm trying my nuts off" I think he said.
You can't run in and hurl the ball down at 90 mph if you're just going through the motions. Otherwise everyone would be able to bowl fast, wouldn't they?
It's a pretty loose interpretation of his interview to suggest that he has somehow confirmed that he doesn't care.
Dropping Harmison would be a good idea if England had any other bowler good enough to replace him. Mamhood and Anderson have both shown that they are not quite good enough for the top level. Harmisons decision to retire from one day cricket is a great oppournity for him to go and work on his game, it also give the young bowlers a chance to emerge, i personaly would love to see Broad play in the one day series.
