Steve Harmison: "There is a human element to the art of fast bowling – that's why it's so unpredictable"

NICK FRIEND: There were times in Harmison's career when pitches would be specially prepared to negate his threat. He felt for Jofra Archer as he ran in on placid surfaces in New Zealand. The experience, he believes, will have helped him immeasurably

As Jofra Archer toiled away in New Zealand for little reward, Steve Harmison watched on with a knowing sympathy.

The former England fast bowler has been there himself and has seen it all before. He recognises only too well the feeling of plugging away on unhelpful surfaces; at times during his career, they were wholly designed to negate him.

For a time leading into the Ashes series in 2005, Harmison was undisputed as the world’s best. His was a name to be feared. He understands fast bowling better than most, as well as the nuanced challenges that come with one of the game’s toughest artforms. Archer, he believes, will be better for the frustration he experienced against Kane Williamson’s side.

Many assumed that the Sussex man would immediately become the missing link to England’s travails abroad, the wolf to blow the house down, where previous bowling attacks had lacked the firepower to impact batting line-ups on easy-paced pitches.

As England fought in vain against the Blackcaps in a series that should still have left the tourists with some optimism – albeit in the batting department rather than with the ball, nobody in the visitors’ ranks bowled more overs than Archer. None, Joe Root and Joe Denly apart, garnered less in return. His 82 overs cost 209 runs for the recompense of just two wickets.

Some have been quick to criticise Archer, taking his compelling duel with Steve Smith at Lord’s as a norm to be replicated consistently. It is an expectation that irritates Harmison, who experienced a similar series when England won in South Africa back in 2004/05.

He dismissed only nine batsmen in five games at an average of 73.22. But England won, and that was all that mattered. Matthew Hoggard dominated proceedings, taking 26 wickets. It was a learning curve for Harmison; to a point, it was both his making and that of a group of bowlers who went on to secure iconic status by beating Australia the following year using much the same approach of mutual selflessness.

Steve Harmison was nullified by sedate pitches when he toured South Africa in 2004/05

“It’s about understanding that you’re doing a good job for your team,” he explains. “It was Hoggard’s tour, that. Hoggard bowled beautifully. What you have to realise is that there is someone at the other end and you can do a job for someone at the other end, even if you’re not getting wickets.

“My job there was to bowl short and try to push South Africa back. Then, we’d get Hoggard pitching it up and swinging it. He was swinging it around corners – I think he got 12 wickets in that Wanderers Test.

“I didn’t bowl a full ball. I was there to push them as far back as I possibly could because Hoggy had it on a bit of string, swinging it. That was the plan. That was the idea and the game plan.”

When Harmison dominated elsewhere – in West Indies, for one, where he took 23 wickets at 14.86, including a seven-wicket haul, others would play the water-carrying role to support him.

“He would just bowl at fifth stump, sixth stump and kept the batsman on strike, knowing that I had the wood on somebody at the other end,” he adds. “That’s what you have to do; you have to work together.”

It is why the return of James Anderson from injury is so vital. Even in foreign conditions and with an often-soulless Kookaburra ball, he has shown in the past his capacity to tie up an end for his captain, while remaining a threat.

Although he will have to be managed carefully at 37 years of age and now with a significant recent history of calf trouble, his presence could free up Archer.

This all comes with a warning from Harmison. “It is not physically possible,” he says, to run in and bowl at consistent pace and with never-ending zip through an entire day. It is equally hard, he suggests, to turn the tap off and on at will.

^{Jofra Archer took just two wickets in two Tests in New Zealand}

“That’s what people have got to understand. Sometimes it just doesn’t happen,” he stresses. “Sometimes when you try to get it to happen, it just doesn’t happen. Sometimes it happens and it just comes naturally.

“Many times, I said in my career to Michael Vaughan: ‘I just don’t feel right today. I don’t feel right.’ And Michael Vaughan would say: ‘Right, forget just trying to put it there. It’s not working. Just run in and try to bowl as fast as you can. I’ll sort the field out. I’ll put men back, I don’t mind where it goes. Let’s just get four or five overs as quick as you can out of you.’

“Sometimes, that works. Sometimes, you feel a million dollars and you feel in good nick and like you can bowl all day. There is a human element to the art of fast bowling. That’s why it’s so unpredictable.

“The problem that Jofra’s got and I had is that because he’s a larger-than-life character, he likes to mess about and he’s not shy, when he doesn’t have a good day people are quick to judge and say he’s not bothered and he doesn’t care.

“That’s nonsense. Absolute nonsense. He does care. Because I have been in that situation, where people say I wasn’t bothered, didn’t want to do it, he’s hot one day and cold the next day – all the sayings.

“But that’s the art of fast bowling. Sometimes it doesn’t click.”

The secret to making a long career of it, he says, is making the most of those days when it doesn’t quite work. It is never easy, but it is certainly more straightforward when everything falls into place. On those when it doesn’t, as Harmison learnt in South Africa, the task becomes one of slipping back into the supporting cast.

“On days when you haven’t got it and when it’s not happening for you, you just have to make sure you’re doing your job for your team and helping somebody else at the other end to have a good day. That’s the sign of a good partnership.

“I think the New Zealand leg was a good test for Jofra from a mental point of view in terms of how tough this Test match cricket is. I think he’ll come out a better bowler for that. I think he’s a fantastic bowler.”

^{Kevin Pietersen announced himself onto the international stage during the 2004 ODI series}

Harmison will be part of TalkSPORT’s radio coverage of the series, re-joining a team that includes Darren Gough, Mark Butcher, Matt Prior and, intriguingly, Kevin Pietersen.

It was on ‘Hoggard’s tour’ of South Africa 15 years ago that English cricket first truly met Pietersen. Harmison remains immensely fond of his former teammate – “the ultimate professional,” he calls him ahead of their reunion behind the microphone.

Pietersen announced himself onto the international stage with three hundreds in the ODI series against Graeme Smith’s side – the first of which evoked controversy brought on when the extravagant batsman kissed the England badge on his helmet after reaching three figures.

Harmison recalls it as one of the finest white-ball knocks he has ever seen. At the time, however, that felt immaterial against the feeling of animosity between player and crowd. But by the time Pietersen brought up his third century at Centurion, most around the ground acknowledged the milestone.

“I stood on the balcony thinking: ‘Don’t kiss the badge. Don’t kiss the badge, Kev. Oh, he’s kissed it. Oh no. Here we go.’ And then when they turned their back on him,” he reminisces with a wry chuckle.

“The marked difference between Bloemfontein and when he got a hundred in East London – the supporters applauded him. The country applauded him. That tells you, they judge great cricket.

“It was a fantastic tour for England. We nailed that trip. And it was the start of something special.”

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