Steve Harmison's bowling - expert opinion

Steve Harmison's one of our favourite players. That puts him up there with just about anyone who's ever played cricket (we really should try and be a little harder to please). Actually, Steve Harmison really is one of our favourites. Right up there - top two or three probably. Unfortunately, at the minute we've got a little bit of a problem with his bowling, although obviously we wouldn't dream of telling Steve Harmison how to bowl.

We wouldn't dream of it. But we are going to do it. Steve quite often sprays it around a bit, but that's not specifically our problem. We think that he bowls too short. Think of Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh or even Andy Caddick - all tall bowlers, but they didn't hammer the middle of the pitch. They took their wickets with full length balls.

Being tall is an advantage for a fast bowler, but the advantage is not the bounce you get from short length balls - a batsman knows where he is with those - it's with full length balls that rear up. Rap a batsman on the gloves with a full length ball and he'll be a little more cautious going on to the front foot the next time. This caution will be the root cause of his demise. A batsman has to play with certainty.

What qualifies us to write 'expert opinion' you ask. Well on the subject of length, we think we know a thing or two. Back in our playing days in the local under-13s, we were once confronted with a batsman who deposited each of our shorter-pitched deliveries into the chemical works adjacent to the ground. After extensive research (on various Indian batsmen's ages) we can reveal that that batsman, ladies and gentlemen, was none other than Indian opener, Wasim Jaffer - an overseas professional at the age of 12.

If, by chance, you happen to know for a fact that Wasim Jaffer didn't play cricket in the North-West of England at the age of 12, then don't tell us.