SINCE he returned from South Africa, Stephen Harmison has begun to enjoy his life again. The next step is to rekindle his passion for cricket. In the coming week he will start to work with Troy Cooley, the ECB fast bowling coach, and the fruits of the partnership will help to determine whether England can regain the Ashes.

If Harmison recovers the momentum of 2004, when he became the leading bowler in the world, England have every chance of beating Australia this summer for the first time since 1987. If, on the other hand, he reproduces the performances of the past winter, a ninth successive loss probably awaits.

Harmison wants to draw a line under the South Africa tour, when his nine Test wickets cost an average of 73.22 and he was dropped from the one-day side after recovering from injury. He will reflect with Cooley on what went wrong, but then it will be time to move on and work towards the most eagerly awaited series in recent memory. “Everybody seems to be talking about the Ashes,” Harmison said. “If I’m being honest, I don’t think anybody is interested in Bangladesh or the one-day matches. There is no big football tournament clashing with us, so we have a clear run — just England against Australia at cricket, and the people up here can’t wait to see it on the TV.”

“Up here” is the North East of England, where Harmison is famously happiest. His homesickness is well-documented and will be a topic for question whenever his form slips abroad, particularly after revealing in Port Elizabeth last month that he wanted to fail a fitness test on a calf injury so he could miss the one-day series.

Yet the crammed South Africa itinerary seemed perfect for his personality. “With five Tests and seven one-day internationals in three months, that was a great tour for me,” he said. “I need my mind to be occupied and there was always cricket to give me the focus. The downside is if you hit a rut, because there is not time to get out of it during a Test match.

“When I had that injury and couldn’t play and we were getting towards the end of the tour . . . well, anybody would start to think about other things.

“Actually, I don’t think I bowled all that badly. In the West Indies I probably had a better rhythm and just got on a roll. I want to enjoy my cricket again, but I won’t be making big changes.”

Harmison is easing towards the new season. As he says, there is no point in peaking in April. Thus, sport has meant following Newcastle United, Ashington AFC, where Jimmy, his father, is assistant manager, and Bedlington Terriers, who went out of the FA Vase semifinals on Saturday when James, his brother, had a penalty saved.

He has also taken his family to Disneyland Paris. “I enjoyed it more than the kids,” he said. “It was like going to London — nobody knew me.” And, in a timely reminder of his achievements, he has followed the likes of Jonny Wilkinson, Alan Shearer and Jonathan Edwards in collecting a pair of regional sporting awards.

The first six weeks of the season will be spent with Durham, a lengthy spell at county level in these days of central contracts. England still declined to release him for the pre-season tour to Sharjah. Martyn Moxon, the Durham coach, wanted Harmison with the squad for the first week, ostensibly to get to know his team-mates.

There will still be time for bonding and Harmison hopes that wickets for Durham will launch a memorable summer. “The year 2004 was great and 2005 has not been so good up to now,” he said. “But we are only three months in and there is a lot of cricket to come.” As if we need reminding.

IN GOOD COMPANY

SHANE WARNE: Figures of ten for 505 against India in 2000-01 did not stop his march past 500 Test wickets

GRAHAM GOOCH: England’s leading scorer with 8,900 runs averaged 13.90 against Australia in 1981

DONALD BRADMAN: Average fell to 56.57 in the 1932-33 Bodyline series, against 99.94 overall