There has never been a truer statement than "Form is temporary and class is permenant"

Harmison is a form bowler, and at 6ft whatever can be terrifying. The next day who knows. We all want him to be Curtly Ambrose, but may have to accept that he may never be.

I reckon he should just run in and bounce the hell out of them in the next test. If he scons a few guys he may work out what he is actually meant to be trying to do.

Thaitaff, Bangkok,

I dunno, Monty doesn't seem to have a problem combining the long-clawed lion with the fluffy vegetarian. Harmison's problem is probably simpler - running up to bowl with a vivid mental picture of a horrendous wide marked "don't". All he needs is a his own highlights reel and a day's work with Paul McKenna.

Ellie, London,

Q: What makes a sportsman good vs great?

Answer: consistancy of performance over a long period of time.

I am sick of people making excuses for Steve Harmison. The reality is that he is an eratic bowler and always will be. And hence no more than an average bowler. He managed an 18 month period back in 2004 when he was consistant but that is all. He has been playing Test cricket for England for >4yrs but has been a class bowler for less than 50% of the time.
All class players have dips in form Lara, Tendulkar, Hayden, Ponting etc.. But they dont spend half their career playing poorly!
We need to accept that Steve Harmison is an inacurate pace bowler in the mold of Devon Malcolm who will produce a performance about 1 in 6 or 7 games. The selectors then need to decide if that is better than the rest ie. Mahmood, Plunkett, Anderson. End off!

Rams, London, England

Its simple. He is just not accurate enough and hence not a threat when he is not bowling at the batsman. That is not because he is a nice guy, it is because he is not good enough. Peroid...

Karthik, USA,

I think that the problem with Harmison is that he was billed as the next big thing by all concerned with English cricket, when he humiliated a very poor West Indies team on very helpful bowling wickets. Since then he has proven to be a difficult bowler to face only on wickets that offer a lot of assistance, on wickets with a lot less 'juice' in them he has been shown to be a very mediocre bowler. English fans and pundits seem to be totally oblivious to the fact that he is the bowling equivelent of a flat track bully, and having the pressure of expectancy on him when he clearly is not up to it is what is probably causing to bowl even worse than he is capable of.

Amit Puri, London, England

Proclaiming Stephen Harmison to be the best fast bowler in the world is like proclaiming Greg Rusedski to be the greatest left handed tennis player who every lived. Utterly ridiculous. What space-time continuum is Simon barnes living in?

Daniel Klawansky, Johannesburg, South Africa

Fabulous response Dilip. I saw Harmison "bowl" at Lilac Hill on the Ashes tour in 2003 - 16 wides in 7 overs including 8 in one 14 ball over. The funny part was that each wide ball in that over was exactly the same. I left thegame thinking that England had serious problems, and (granted there were injuries) it proved to be so. Harmison improved, but apart from odd spells he has never impressed me for very long. My response to Simons closing question if Harmison were to ask it would be "no good asking you mate!"

Michael Hill, Perth, Western Australia

This is a rather silly article. Mr Barnes attributes to Harmison all sorts of sublimely complex thoughts and motivations, without adducing an iota of evidence. I remember Statham, a splendid fast bowler, who appeared to be, at the same time, a most pleasant chap, with nary an unpleasant thought about the batsmen facing him. I remember arguing, as boys used to, whether Trueman's overt hostility at the other end was really necessary. Harmison, nice chap or not, seems on evidence to be quite sub-verbal and simple minded. Various technical deficiencies in his bowling, amplified as they often are by his chest-on position at delivery, have made him an unreliable bowler. Why keep him on for much longer? He doesn't seem to have the intelligence to change and continues to be an abjectly dismal tourist. Also, why attribute all sorts of noble motives to this rather inept cricketer, when the root cause may equally likely be, what was well enough understood in England past: lack of moral fibre.

Dilip Balamore, Patchogue, New York, USA

I dunno, Monty seems to be able to combine the sabre-wielding lion with the fluffy veggie quite easily.

I think H's problem is just that he runs with a brilliantly coloured mental picture of a horrendous wide marked "don't", instead of a picture of a good ball. A couple of days watching his own highlights reels with a decent hypnotist should sort him out.

Ellie, London,

Steve Harmison is mentally weak and should be seen nowhere near the English team. This is typical of English sport, too many living on reputation which they can no longer back up, and being carried by the other team members to our detriment. We need to be ruthless like the Aussies, then perhaps people will start performing.

Poor article Simon.

Roger, Swindon, Wilts

since when was Steve Harmison ever the best fast bowler in the world. One good series does not make a great anything.

Lee, Darwin, Australia

What a crying shame that Harmy appears unlikely to return to his best. I admit being begrudgingly in awe of his ability to stick it up our top order in '05.

Although, like all Aussies, I was delighted with our crushing reclamation of the Ashes, it was Harmy's poor showing that left me most disappointed in the Poms. I was truly looking forward to seeing our best batsmen tested again with his steepling bounce, awkward length and genuine pace. It was this contest in particular, that had me thrilled when we batted on Day One in Brisbane.

Like everyone else at the Gabba, I was amused at the first ball, but put it down to an understandable error in grip. Little did we know that it was indicative of a troubled man. More's the pity. Here's hoping that Harmy's exquisite bowling machine starts firing again. You don't sound hopeful.

At least you had a memorable encounter with a possum that night in Brisbane Simon. I know Geoffrey is busting to get back here soon. The red carpet awaits...

Peter McGuinness, Gold Coast,