Ian Harvey ensures post-Dawson Gloucestershire retain air of familiarity

NICK FRIEND: Continuity will be the order of the day at Bristol, where Harvey has stepped up to replace Dawson, who leaves a club well positioned on and off the field, with a young and talented squad

Ian Harvey already holds legendary status at Gloucestershire from his playing days at Bristol. But if any of the club’s several homegrown players now under his interim leadership regard him as an idol, then that would be news to him.

“If they do, they’ve never said anything to me,” he laughs.

Harvey has been placed in charge until the end of the season following the departure of Richard Dawson, whose impact at Nevil Road has been reflected in the ECB’s keenness to sign him up on a full-time basis as an elite performance pathway coach.

To the naked eye, it is hard to take that bombshell as anything other than a disappointment for those of a Gloucestershire persuasion, who have been treated through the tenure of the former Yorkshire spinner to a period of success – capped by promotion back to the top tier of the County Championship, 50-over silverware and a visit to T20 Finals Day – all with a youthful, likeable, increasingly fearless squad.

But if the aim of any job is to exit it in better health than upon arrival, then Dawson has accomplished his mission and the county he leaves behind should have little to worry about. In a modern age of elite sport where vacancies tend to open up with teams nearing their lowest ebb amid unrest and poor results, this case is an exception. And so, continuity is the way forward under Harvey, Dawson’s former assistant.

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“There won’t be much difference in the way I’m going about things with the boys from what Daws was doing,” he insists. “I think we are both very similar in the way that we want to play our cricket. We’ve had our fallouts before, but I think that’s why we get on so well and work well together. We don’t just agree with what the other person says.”

Since speaking to The Cricketer, Harvey’s backroom staff has added another club icon, with Mark Alleyne returning to the county he captained to white-ball victory and later coached with distinction.

The appointment of Alleyne, who has also had a mural unveiled at the ground in his honour, fits with a point that Harvey reaffirms on a couple of occasions about continuing to learn in his position from others in the game. “I’m pretty relaxed about most things, though the boys make say different,” he says, analysing a coaching style that is still taking shape. “I’ve lost my cool a couple of times! My role is to make sure that the players are in the best place to go out there and perform at their best.”

^{Ian Harvey, a club legend from his playing days, has replaced Richard Dawson as interim head coach}

That commitment will remain the same, even if he is now the face of primary authority rather than second in command.

“I don’t want to change too much from the way I am with the players. I think the players pretty much know where they stand with all of the coaching staff. I’m not going to try to pretend to be someone that I’m not, just because I’ve come into this role.

“There are bigger decisions that I’ll have to be making and the players totally understand that. Outside of all that, I’m not going to try to be someone I’m not.”

The first task comes in organising a squad to compete in what is perhaps the most competitive of the three conferences in this year’s restructured County Championship. Perennial runners-up Somerset will be favourites, but they begin with an eight-point deficit as punishment for the pitch prepared at Taunton two summers ago in their title decider against Essex.

Beyond them, all five teams have legitimate grounds for optimism, with Gloucestershire’s confidence born out of their 2019 campaign, when they finished third to earn their return to Division One. With the way that circumstances have conspired since, however, that wait continues.

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Are the memories of that year too distant to cling onto this time around as evidence that his charges can compete in four-day cricket? Harvey doesn’t believe so.

“They have shown that if they put in the consistent performances, then they can do that,” he says. “But it’s more for our boys about whether we can do that over a season and not just for one game. I think that’s a big challenge, but I think that’s a big challenge for all counties – trying to find that consistency.”

Speaking as the man tasked with overseeing that task, what can he do?

“You just have to keep on telling them and keep drilling it into them that they’ve done it before and they’ve done it against some quality bowling attacks and batting line-ups. It’s just making sure that they’ve got the belief in themselves when they go out to the middle, they believe that they can perform against anyone.

“That’s what we’re pushing for – for those guys to stand up now and perform consistently. They know they can do it. I think when we got promoted, we were heading in that right direction, we were pretty consistent throughout the season. That just has to continue; we will keep challenging them and pushing them to make sure they try to achieve that.”

^{James Bracey is back in the fold after spending his winter with England}

The position of James Bracey in that regard has taken on extra significance over the last 12 months. The wicketkeeper-batsman has signed a contract extension and will be Chris Dent’s vice-captain this year in red-ball cricket, coming on the back of a meteoric rise for a 23-year-old who was still playing MCCU cricket for Loughborough in 2018.

He is still yet to make his international debut but, if and when that moment arrives, it would see him become the first Gloucestershire player to represent his country since Jon Lewis in 2005. In the meantime, however, he has become a precedent to follow for his county teammates, having spent last summer as part of England’s bio-secure Test bubble and then the winter on tours of Sri Lanka and India.

“It’s absolutely massive,” says Harvey. “Any time you have one of your players off with the England team for the amount of time that Bracey has been over the last 18 months is absolutely brilliant for him, but it’s also a brilliant example to other players that this is where you can end up if you’re performing and doing what he has done.”

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That message is pertinent well beyond Bristol too, though few counties have as many players at a similar stage of their career to Bracey or, at least, on the cusp of a breakthrough season. Tom Lace, a terrific signing from Middlesex last year, is one player in particular who might take inspiration from his colleague’s achievements.

Another is Ryan Higgins, among the cricketers of the summer in 2019 – 958 runs at 59.87 and 50 wickets at 23.64 – and, like Lace, a young man who left Lord’s for first team cricket at Gloucestershire.

“I see a lot of myself in Higgo,” says Harvey, reflecting on his own playing days as a skilful, bustling allrounder.

“I think all coaches who have played will see certain similarities in themselves with certain players. You definitely do. That’s where you have to try to pass onto them all the mistakes that you made, I suppose, in the hope that they don’t do the same.”

^{Ryan Higgins is one of the best allrounders on the county circuit}

What does that mean for those who wonder whether Higgins’ run-tally at No.6 might be transferable further up the order?

“It’s a tough call to make because, yes, he has the ability to do it, but then you have to match it up with what he’s doing with the ball and what’s best for him and for the team. Anyone who’s been an allrounder and has done as much work as he does and can bat as well as he does, it’s not easy to bat up the order. You might come off from bowling 25 overs and then lose a couple of quick wickets and you’ve got your pads on straight away and you haven’t really had a chance to relax.

“It’s a real balancing act. As a coach, you have to weigh that up and make sure you’re looking after the player and the team as well.”

Looking after the team is a central aspect at Gloucestershire, whose dressing room spirit has been strengthened in recent years by personal adversity. Harvey lost his wife, Amanda, in 2018, the same year in which Laura, the wife of left-arm spinner Tom Smith, also passed away. A year earlier, former captain Gareth Roderick – now at Worcestershire – lost his father to suicide.

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The tragedies, Smith told The Cricketer last year, forged an “emotional intelligence” among the squad that bound them closer together.

“I think one thing that Daws has done over the time he’s been here is to get guys to open up honestly in the changing room,” Harvey says. “People have the confidence where it doesn’t matter if it’s your first game or you’ve played 100 games. In the changing room, you can feel as though you can speak up and say things without thinking you’re saying the wrong thing.

“Hopefully, that’s most dressing rooms but I think what’s happened over the last three or four years with our changing room, the boys are very close. Whether you’re coaching or you’re a player, the support is there. From my point of view – and from the players’ point of view – I think that’s absolutely brilliant, and I think Daws has worked really hard to have that. I think the dressing room moving forward is a really good spot to be in.”

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