As we all know, there is only one cricket story to talk about right now. The ongoing dispute between England captain Kevin Pietersen and Peter Moores has left the future of the latter very much in the air. So, who better to ‘call for unity’ than Steve ‘I’m committed to England, but not when we have to be on tour for too long’ Harmison?

The pace bowler has said that Moores and Pietersen need to ‘sort out their issues’ that they have as soon as possible. He then went on to say that ‘it’s about the England cricket team’ and not about the individuals involved.

This is a view that can’t be argued with. Neither Moores, nor Pietersen for that matter are bigger than the team as a whole. KP may think that he is and that may have been what caused these problems in the first place. Something to think about I guess.

Something else the Durham man pointed out was the timing of it all. To have such uncertainty at the start of an Ashes year is ‘not ideal’ according to Harmy who also believes that if the issue isn’t sorted sharpish, then there is a real danger that the ‘team will drift further apart’. This isn’t what anybody wants.

These comments from Harmison confirm something for me. There is almost certainly division in the squad already over this issue. By saying that the team could drift ‘further apart’, Harmison is hinting that some drifting has already commenced in the England camp.

Some players will be sticking by their coach, some by their captain. Some would have preferred Michael Vaughan to have been selected, some would have been happy with his omission. Overall, there isn’t a more inappropriate term than ‘team unity’ when referring to England right now.

Instead, there is a divide in the squad that is even overshadowing the fact that Australia are getting trounced at home by South Africa and are, let’s be honest, not the force they once were.

In true English fashion though, we won’t let another team have all the problems. As Harmison says, this issue needs to be dealt with sooner rather than later, but whatever happens now – Moores stays or Moores goes – you do get the feeling that some long term damage may have already been done.

By Thomas Rooney – A sports writer who blogs about cricket betting

Tags: england cricket, kevin pietersen, peter moores, steve harmison

Much talk in recent weeks has been regarding the Stanford Twenty20 matches that England take part in next month. Victory provides one of the richest prizes in sport and there is no doubt that England will be determined to win. However, Steve Harmison – who was criticised by some for coming out of one-day retirement in time for the Stanford games – has said that his main focus for the next year is regaining the Ashes from Australia.

The Durham man says that the next 12 months is going to be ‘exciting and intense’ for the England team and that despite all the money available in the Stanford series, the Ashes is ‘one to really win’. Of course, Harmison was dropped after a poor start to the New Zealand series in the winter but has come back to the fold under new captain Kevin Pietersen firing on all cylinders. The England bowling attack really does look much, much stronger with Harmison involved. Especially when he acts as part of the ‘3rd and 4th seamers’ with his good friend Andrew Flintoff.

Harmison obviously played an integral part in England winning the Ashes back in 2005 and is keen to replicate such a series next summer when Australia come to England once again. He says that for England to beat the Aussies is a very ‘realistic goal’ and having tasted victory against them as well as a 5-0 whitewash – he knows which he enjoyed being part of more. The England players involved in this disastrous series, including Harmison, will be very keen to banish it from their memories with a positive outcome against a much change Australia team next summer.

There does seem to be a new determination from Harmison. He sounds like he has regained his passion for representing the England team. He obviously works well under the captain Pietersen and this will benefit the England side a great deal. With Harmison’s unique pace and bounce, he is a bowler that can strike fear into the opposition. If England are to win the Ashes next year, the likes of Harmison, Flintoff and Pietersen will be the key men. It was certainly good to see them all in top form against South Africa this summer. Long may that continue!

Instead of looking too far ahead though, it really is worth highlighting the fantastic season that Harmison has had. In his own words he started the new campaign at his ‘lowest ebb’. However, he has ended it not only back in the England team, but with his Durham winning the County Championship for the first time. After his distinctly below average performance in New Zealand, many cricket bets were being placed on Harmison never playing for England again. The way he has fought back has to be admired, even by his biggest critics.

It is important that Harmison continues his recent revival though. There is a lot of cricket to be played until now and the Ashes and it will be interesting to see if he can perform sufficiently on tour. Should everything continue to go swimmingly in the land of Harmison over the next few months, there is no doubt that the cricket odds are more likely to favour England winning the Ashes. The likes of Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke and Michael Hussey would rather not face a fired up, in form Steve Harmison – of that I have no doubt. Keep it going Steve!

Thomas Rooney - Freelance Sports Journalist

Tags: andrew flintoff, cricket, steve harmison, the ashes

Well he’d certainly like us to believe he is and, if you were to go along with some of the stuff that’s been written recently, it’s a view shared by journalists and pundits alike but just how good is he?

Now don’t get me wrong, our performances since he took over the reigns from Vaughany have been pretty impressive. We won the final Test match of the series and are 4-0 up in the ODI series with just the final match to be played tomorrow. Freddie Flintoff is back amongst the runs and Steve Harmison is back amongst the wickets. On the face of it he’s performed miracles since taking over. A win tomorrow lifts England up to second in the ODI world rankings but let’s just put things into perspective for a minute, shall we?

The win in the final Test was against a South African team who had already done what they set out to achieve which was secure a first Test series victory on English soil for over 40 years. Sure there’s the professional pride thing but I’m sure that as far as the Saffers were concerned they’d already done the job. To a certain extent that attitude has spilt over into the one day team. They weren’t helped by the injuries to key players but I can’t help feeling that their heart wasn’t in it. I’m not saying they’ve rolled over and kicked their legs in the air but I feel that if the Test series had gone the other way that we’d be seeing a different South Africa team.

Ian Bell gives us an interesting insight into Team KP in this quote from the BBC website:

Kev (Pietersen) sat down with us before the series started and gave us an honest chat about where he thought we were as a team…It’s pretty obvious to see that at times we can play outstandingly well and at times we can be pretty poor…The one thing he has tried to mark on everyone is that we have to have consistency and everyone has bought into that…

So the key ingredient to Pietersens success is by getting highly paid professional sportsman to stop being shit, then. Getting the players to agree that they need to perform consistently doesn’t strike me as being revolutionary and, if anything, says more about them than it does about him.

Maybe it’s just the curmudgeon in me. Possibly it’s because I wanted Fatboy Fat to take over but for whatever reason I’m still not totally sold on Pietersen as skipper.

Bring home the Ashes next summer and then I might reconsider.

Tags: andrew flintoff, cricket, england cricket, ian bell, kevin pietersen, south africa, steve harmison