Ashes scores can be settled next summer
Oct 4 2008 by Luke Edwards, The Journal
STEVE Harmison has declared he has some scores to settle against Australia next summer following one of the most humiliating episodes of his career two years ago, writes LUKE EDWARDS.
Harmison’s name will always be synonymous with the first ball of the last Ashes series which was so wide it was taken at second slip. For many it set the tone for England’s 5-0 whitewash, but if it is a mistake he will never be allowed to forget, it is one he can at least help erase with victory in 12 months’ time. He said: “I think winning the Ashes is a realistic goal. The 15 or 16 players in the squad excite me and if we can continue to develop as a team over the winter there is no reason why we can’t beat Australia.
“I do feel I’ve got a bit of a score to settle. I know what it’s like to win the Ashes and I know what it is like to lose the Ashes 5-0. It’s the same for Andrew Flintoff, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood and Andrew Strauss.
“I’ve got some horrendous memories from the last series and they will always live with me, but a win in England will help erase them a little. I think it can happen, I really do, but we’ve got a hell of a lot of cricket to play between now and then. I think we’ve got 10 different series in the next 12 months and I’d like to play in and win them all.”
Although the domestic season has only just drawn to a close, the focus has already shifted to the money-spinning Twenty20 tournament on the Caribbean island of Antigua next month.
Financed by the billionaire Allan Stanford, England will play England’s Twenty20 champions Middlesex, an all star team and the West Indies for prize money which will make the winners dollar millionaires. Following his decision to come out of one-day international retirement, Harmison will be involved.
He said: “This is going to be an exciting and intense 12 months of cricket and I cannot wait. People will go on about the Stanford series and the money that is on offer, but every single Englishman knows the Ashes series against Australia is the one to really win. The money on offer for the Stanford tournament is a lot, but you’ve got to win it first. We are going out there to represent our country, just as we will do in India and the West Indies this winter.
“I think we will get a certain amount of stick about playing in the Stanford games, but it was the ECB who organised it, not the players.
“We’ll get stick if we win and we’ll get stick if we lose. I even offered not to play because I knew people would say I’ve only started playing one-day cricket again for England because of the money, but that wasn’t the case.”
