Harmison has 'unfinished business' with Australia

Published on Monday 3 August 2009 00:05

ENGLAND paceman Steve Harmison is desperate to make a belated entry into this year's Ashes series, admitting he has "unfinished business" with Australia.

The in-form Durham seamer was part of the famous 2005 series on home soil, but has been overlooked in the first three matches this summer, with county team-mate Graham Onions edging him out as the side's fourth seamer.

Failure to appear either at Headingley later this week or the series finale at The Oval would mean Harmison's final memory of facing the old enemy would be the 5-0 series whitewash Down Under in 2006-7 – a series where he was woefully out of form.

And that is something the 31-year-old is desperate to avoid. "The truth is that, much as I love playing for Durham, I'm desperate to play against Australia. You can't overestimate how desperate," he said.

"I'd have given everything to have played at Lord's, to be playing now in Birmingham and to play in Leeds. I'm champing at the bit again and the way I'm bowling at the minute, I'd be a handful against any opposition.

"I love playing for England and I do have unfinished business with Australia. I'll never forget winning in 2005, but I don't want my last Ashes memory to be of 2006-7, neither for that first ball, nor the whole experience of losing 5-0.

"It took us 20 years to win the Ashes back in 2005 – and just 18 months to lose them. I'd like to think I could be part of winning them back."

There have been reports that Harmison could retire at the end of the current series but he insists he is ready to continue for as long as England require him – potentially as a like-for-like replacement for the retiring Andrew Flintoff.

"I have no intention of retiring from Test cricket. The idea that I see this series as a chance of a farewell is not in my thoughts," he added.

"It may be that England do not see a future for me beyond the end of this summer. If that is the case, there is nothing I can do about it. But I'm not going to tell them I'm not available."