Have Hoggard and Harmison played their last Test?

England Cricket / Andrew Hughes / 20 March 2008 / 1 Comments

Andrew Hughes looks at bowlers who have returned to Test cricket after being dropped and considers the chances of the same happening to Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard

Brian Statham, the rubber-limbed, broad-smiling workhorse of the English attack, played twice against the West Indies in 1963 . His three wickets cost nearly two hundred runs and England lost both Tests. He was dropped and at the age of thirty-three it appeared his England days were over. But two years later, he was back for the final Test against South Africa. He took seven wickets in the match and could have gone to Australia that winter had he wanted.

John Snow, the scourge of the Australians in 1970-71 was dropped at the end of the home series of 1973. At thirty-two he might have thought he'd played his last Test. But two years later he was recalled, playing against Australia in the summer of 1975 and West Indies the following year, with some success.

Whilst they cannot be rated as their equals, Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison have some things in common with their illustrious predecessors. Though slower than Statham, Hoggard takes on a similarly heavy workload, is just as happy to batter away into the breeze and concentrates on hitting a good length. And though not in Snow's class, Harmison is capable of spells of unplayable bowling but has similarly fallen prey to his inner demons. And of course, both Hoggard and Harmison have just been dropped from the England team. Hoggard is thirty-one, Harmison twenty-nine. Will we ever see them in an England sweater again?

Harmison was a disconsolate figure throughout the First Test in Hamilton. Lumbering in and going through the motions at medium pace, he bowled with little control and intelligence, the characteristic shrug with which he loosens his shirt also signalling his apparent indifference. Snow's problems were those of a volatile temperament. Harmison's issues are well documented, from his detestation of the tedium of touring to his chronic lack of self-confidence. His descent from the briefly attained summit of potency in 2004 has been long and public. No-one was surprised when Vaughan and Moores broke the bad news to him after net practice at Wellington. Barring a complete and unlikely change of personality there is every chance he has played his last Test match.

By contrast, Hoggard's axing was an unexpected, almost brutal act. You could almost hear the sharp intake of breath as the news broke. Not Hoggard, surely? Always willing, always on target from ball one, for some years now, he has been the foundation of the England attack. Despite suffering a stomach infection the week before the Hamilton Test, an illness that saw him leave the field during a warm up match to throw up into a waste bin, there was never any question that he might excuse himself from international duty. Recovering from illness, bowling on a thankless featherbed of a pitch, he wheeled in relentlessly for thirty-eight overs. For the first time in many months, his high standards slipped and he went for a few more runs than usual. His reward for all those years of toil and high performance? The boot.

If the intended message was that no player is safe, then how was it that the entire batting line-up escaped unscathed after one of the most feeble performances we've seen in a long time? Selection policy under Moores has been uncertain and confused. The recalls of Strauss and Harmison were baffling, the dropping of Hoggard is unwarranted. A management team under pressure are starting to wobble. Which, ironically pretty much guarantees that Hoggard will back in the England team by the start of the summer, probably when Anderson or Broad are made scapegoats for another poor England performance.

Meanwhile, the team will remain unchanged for the deciding Test at Napier. Four out of five Tests there have finished in a draw, due to a generally flat pitch and the intervention of rain. The heavy showers forecast for days three and four help explain why the draw is currently [1.86]. England are [3.15] with New Zealand [6.4] to mark the retirement of Stephen Fleming with a victory. But sentiment has no place in betting as my Betfair colleague Ed Hawkins recently pointed out in this excellent article: http://betting.betfair.com/cricket/bat-and-ball/dont-bet-on-stephen-fleming-bowing-out-in-a-blaze-170308.html

Comments (1)

1. Paul Moon | 21 March 2008

   Andrew

   Another superb article! Your appraisal is exact.