Harmison ready to fight for place

Michael Vaughan will hope he can get the best out of Steve Harmison, whose first six overs on tour went for 48 after a delay caused by his boots being lost in transit © AFP

Steve Harmison's return to England colours was brief and unspectacular. He was unable to take any part in the morning session at the Colombo Cricket Club, after a computer error at Dubai Airport left him bereft of his precious bowling boots, and even when they did turn up at 2.30pm, they had little impact on his performance. His first six overs were milked for 48 runs, including six no-balls and a wide, as the Sri Lanka Board President's XI racked up an imposing 500 for 5 declared.

But afterwards Harmison declared himself satisfied with his work-out, and insisted he was here to fight for the place that was once his by right. "June was the last time I played," he said, having been sidelined for most of the English season after a hernia operation. "Others have got the England shirt, so all I can do is fight. I'm not going to bullshit. If it's good enough I'll play on the first of December [in the first Test at Kandy]. If it's not, then the people who have earned their place will keep their place. I just want the chance to prove to everybody I want to play for England."

That desire has been questioned in several quarters ever since Harmison's form fell away during last winter's Ashes, most notably in the opening match at Brisbane when, by his own admission, he "froze". But he himself put his struggles down to a simple lack of time in the middle. "In the past we still had bowlers knocking on the door, but I went through a long period of not being injured. Now I can't get rid of an injury without another one cropping up.

"I need to spend some time on the park, and if I do that and bowl properly, I feel I'm as good as anyone in England," said Harmison. "When I'm not bowling that well, and coming back [from injury] all the time, then there are better bowlers than me. I'm not the best 80mph bowler, but when I hit my straps and bowl 90mph, not many bowlers in England can do that."

To aid his recuperation, Harmison spent a fortnight in South Africa with the Highveld Lions, accompanied by his England bowling coach and former Durham team-mate Ottis Gibson. He took 13 wickets in two matches, which is more than he managed in an entire Test and first-class programme on England's tour in 2004-05, but by his own admission, his figures were somewhat flattering.

"I'm not going to lie to you," said Harmison, "in my first game my 6 for 91 looked good ... from England. From South Africa it wasn't very good. But it was getting better all the time and I'm being realistic. I want to play for England, I've always wanted to play for England, but I'll have to wait and see. I'm here to fight but whether I play or not is not my decision. I've got nothing to prove to anyone but myself."

Harmison has had his recent performances dissected from so many angles that he was not about to read too much into a rusty first outing in new, slower, conditions. Besides, he was happy to look on the bright side of an arduous two days for his side. "England have got to be happy with the way things have gone," he said. "In these games there's two ways to look at it. If a team gets bowled out for very little then you're unprepared for when a team gets 450 for 5. Each individual bowler got what they wanted out of the game, and hopefully if we can get a full day's batting tomorrow, then it's a successful game. The result is irrelevant.

"Before and after tea we were experimenting with the ball," he added. "How we get that ball to work for us is key because we have to get it to reverse swing as quickly as we can. I sent down a couple of overs of cross-seamers, and the little guy [Kaushal Silva] played well, pulling chunks out of my length, but at the end of the day I wasn't too bothered. I'd rather experiment in this game than on December 2."

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