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Harmy and his daemon

Thursday, April 8 2004

Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy explores maturity, the realisation of the soul and the watersheds of life through the development of an entity attached to human life called a daemon.

As a child grows, his daemon takes many forms suited to the moment, but when he leaves childhood behind - often through a single show of adulthood - the daemon takes on a permanent form, of which it remains for the rest of the human's life.

Stephen James Harmison's career had always been one of uncertainty and inconsistency, often injury-related. The 'A' tours of 1999/00 and 2000/01 were both missed through injury having been named in the original party, and when called into the full England party for the Second Test of the 2002 summer series against India, his performance mirrored his county form.

For every over of well-directed, hostile and incisive pace bowling, there was at least one - and often more - of short, wide dross - either down the off or legside. His daemon stuttered between fearsome tiger and blind mole, through all conceivable intermediaries into the bargain. Yet the tiger was there, and the ECB knew it. Whether it would finally manifest itself as Harmison's true being was another question entirely.

The Ashes winter of 2002/03 tested Harmison more than anything ever had before. A one-day warm up game at Perth's Lilac Hill involved an over that included eight consecutive wides (in mitigation, he had suffered a serious bash on the head from a boundary board), something that his opponents would use against him for months to come. The daemon became a bushbaby, near-blind and helpless as Harmison's career threatened to collapse.

Yet throughout, he produced enough good deliveries to keep the glow of hope burning. The fourth Test of the series saw the nadir of the descent, as England did enough to worry Australia in the second innings chasing just 107. Whilst Andy Caddick excelled as destroyer-in-chief as England recorded a consolation win at Sydney, Harmison's 4-112 played a key supporting role.

Come the summer of 2003 and the visit of Zimbabwe, Harmison threatened more regularly and he recorded nine wickets in the series at 16.44, and his daemon finally seemed set to resume his arduous passage towards resolution.. until Graeme Smith intervened. Harmison's all-too-occasional wayward tendencies played into the hands of the South African skipper, who feasted upon Steve and the other England bowlers alike.

Trent Bridge left the Durham paceman in a supporting role to James Kirtley's moments in the sun, yet he was sorely missed at Headingley as Gary Kirsten - who Harmison had thoroughly worked over and dismissed in a previous innings - and Monde Zondeki took victory out of England's jaws.

A wicketless return - only the second of his test career - in the first innings at Oval, as South Africa piled on 484 hinted little of the fireworks to come. Having shared in a crucial ninth-wicket stand with Andrew Flintoff, Harmison took 4-33 in 19 overs as England cantered to a series-levelling triumph. Was this the watershed?

A magnificent battling display from Harmison and Matthew Hoggard turned the First Test against Bangladesh England's way, Harmison recording match figures of 9-68 as the English spinners were smeared out of the attack... then disaster as injury struck, ruling him out of the Second Test and the whole of the Sri Lanka series. The daemon was frail, and rumours surfaced about Harmison's attitude, commitment, fitness and general disposition.

Yet three months of work with boyhood idols Newcastle United FC, and with England's bowling coach Troy Cooley at Loughborough University's National Academy were enough to secure him a place to lead the England pace attack on tour to storm the Caribbean fortress. The time had come.

A slightly remodelled bowling action, that re-aligns his body towards the intended destination rather than an expansive fall-away through the leg-side, has contributed to the improvement - but that was not all. Something inside had changed, it was stronger. Steve Harmison, March 2004, was a different man and a different bowler to the pale, shadow of an imitation that had all too often masqueraded as Ashington's finest.

His first efforts at Sabina Park, Kingston were 2/61 - decent, but nothing for the scribes to devour and praise, however that was little more than an aperitif, and foul tasting supermarket no-fuss Baked Beans at that. 12.3-8-12-7 as the West Indies crumbled for 47 - a seven-for so economical had never before been realised in Test cricket's 1,686 matches.

This was the watershed, this was the realisation of the role, of maturity, of Stephen James Harmison as the spearhead of the England pace battery and the crowning glory on England's triumph in Jamaica. The daemon was set, and the tiger's roar continued as the tourist army swept imperiously through the islands - seven more wickets saw Trinidad fall and another six at Bridgetown completed series victory for England, their first in the West Indies since 1968.

Now, it is time for him to go on and firmly establish himself alongside the elite of the world's bowlers. His destiny may not be as epoch-shattering as Will and Lyra's in the His Dark Materials trilogy, but for an England with nearly two decades of children without an Ashes win in their lifetimes, it's not far off.

Posted by Neil