Usually, before every Ashes series, there is war of words between both sides. Not just current cricketers but former cricketers take potshots each other. But former England fast bowler Steve Harmison seems to have broken the monotony by blaming legendary England cricketers for the team’s poor Ashes performance over the years.
Harmison was the part of iconic Ashes 2005 where the Michael Vaughan-led side outclassed the Ricky Ponting’s Australian team.
The big difference in England players' approach
In a conversation with SEN, Harmison was asked to respond to former Australian pacer Jason Gillespie's comments that the team in Ashes 2005 under Vaughan's leadership played with a new-found intensity and urgency.
“I noticed a big difference in the England side in the '05 Ashes… we’d never felt that as an Australian side before,” he told SEN's Road to the Ashes.
“England would normally go out in dribs or drabs going onto the field… (but this time) it was really noticeable that as soon as the umpires walked out there, Michael Vaughan was straight out there, everyone was straight out there, quick chat and then they would literally run to their fielding positions, the bowler would run and hand his cap to the umpire and before our batters were halfway onto the ground, the whole England team was set up ready to play, ready to rock.”
Harmison calls England legends selfish
Harmison had made his Test debut in 2002 and played under the captaincy of Nasser Hussain. He singled out former cricketers including Nasser, Mike Atherton, Darren Gough and others as reluctant to take the new approach and called them ‘selfish’.
“The difference between that and 2003, 2001 and 1999, 1997, was in 2005 we were a team.
“We’d grown up as a team, we played as a team and we behaved off the field like a team. In 1997, 2001, 2003/04, you had a lot of selfish characters playing for England.
“Some great cricketers, don’t get me wrong… but when you look at – and I’ve got no problem saying this – the likes of Nasser, Athers, Thorpey (Graham Thorpe), Corkey (Dominic Cork), Darren Gough, Andy Caddock, there was a group of individuals playing all together as a team where you look at 2005, we were a team.
“Looking at (the Australian team), your boys were a team. You might have had some differences, but we never picked up once (on any of them).”
In Ashes 2005, Harmison took 17 wickets at an average of 32.29 including a fifer. The 44-year-old played 226 wickets from 63 Tests including eight fifers.
MORE ON SPORTS TAK:
