words Hamish Stuart

pictures Huw John

JAMES READY TO DELIVER

He is only now emerging from his teenage years, but already James Harris has established himself in Glamorgan ranks as arguably their key strike bowler.

The Pontarddulais product has begun his third season of fi rst-class cricket ready to spearhead a Welsh county seam attack which will be minus both Garnett Kruger and Alex Wharf.

He has become the youngest ever to take 100 fi rst class wickets – bettering the mark set by Robert Croft – and once again gained selection for the England Lions to underline that his progress has not gone unnoticed at the highest levels.

He is also set to partner Australia quickie Shaun Tait – currently the fastest bowler in the world - in the Twenty20 Cup.

Harris has already shown plenty of glimpses of his huge potential. At just 14 he was the youngest player ever to fi gure for the Glamorgan second XI.

And three years later in 2008 he became the youngest player to take a 10-wicket haul in a county championship match. Against Gloucestershire, he fi nished with fi gures of 12 for 118, taking 5-52 in the second innings to follow up his fi rst innings 7-66.

Last year he was picked for the England Lions XI which took on Australia at Worcester and he looked far from out of place in older company.

In preparation for his planned extra responsibility this summer Harris has had

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something of a busy close season without bowling himself into the ground.

Before Christmas he spent more than a month in Florida with some other potential England bowlers concentrating on his strength and conditioning before travelling to India in the New Year for 10 days at Dennis Lillee’s fast bowling academy.

“The thinking was: not to burn the boys out with too much cricket because the season is hectic enough,” said Harris. “I went to Florida – just doing fi tness work.

There was a lot of strength work just building the boys up because the body does take a real bashing in the summer.

“The work I have done will help me in the season and has given me a lot more confi dence.

“Going to Florida was not a holiday. It was three sessions a day and we had to get up at 6.30am every morning with just Sundays off. It was a pretty tough month.

“At the time I thought: ‘this is not what I needed’, but looking back with hindsight it has worked out pretty well. “It is an extra feeling of a strength and fi tness which helps the faster bowlers cope with the repetitive stain they put on their bodies.

“You need to be properly conditioned and I probably haven’t had that. I need to give nmyself the chance to stay on the fi eld for as long as I can.”

That trip might yet see Harris shed his nickname of ‘Bones’, given to him earlier

in his career because his frame was little more than skin and bones.

But while he might have bulked up this winter Harris admits that the trip to see one of the fast bowling legend’s of the game was not as successful as it might have been.

Lillee’s approach became a little technical for Harris’ needs although he did enjoy talking to the Australian at length.

“There was quite a lot of technical work with the bowlers. A lot of video analysis and actions are taken apart. But I’m pretty set on what I do.

“I know my action is not technically perfect but the position I get in to leave the ball go is as good as it’s going to get.

“Dennis gave me some tips on bowling quicker but when I tried them I lost that position in the delivery stride. So I said, along with Steve Watkin [Glamorgan’s bowling coach], that this wasn’t the best thing for me.

“We had to calm him down a bit, sort of thing, and stop him getting too technical. I know the limits of my action and I know my action isn’t perfect but I’m comfortable with it.

“I’m hoping the conditioning work has given me an extra half yard of pace. I’m only going to get quicker over the next few years through fi lling out, and moving nthe ball at 85mph is a lot better than doing it at 82. Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52