Harmy - Cash not a factor

Harmison: back in action

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Steve Harmison has denied his return to one-day international cricket is purely for financial reasons.

The Durham fast bowler returned to action for England in limited overs cricket on Friday at Headingley, two years after announcing his retirement from the shorter form of the game.

But despite the lucrative Stanford Twenty20 match in Antigua on the horizon, Harmison insists his return is for "cricketing reasons".

Following talks with England captain Kevin Pietersen and coach Peter Moores, Harmison agreed to return to the squad for the NatWest Series against South Africa, after a hip injury ruled out Ryan Sidebottom for the opening match at Headingley.

His availability would put him in contention for the November 1 Twenty20 match against Stanford's All Star team in Antigua, which will earn each player around £500,000 should England triumph, and provoked questions about Harmison's motivation for his return.

England did consider sending him out to South Africa again - as they did prior to the pre-Christmas tour to Sri Lanka last year - while another option would have been to include him on the England Lions tour to India which precedes the senior trip.

Available

But now he is available for one-day cricket again, Harmison can expect plenty of bowling in the seven one-day internationals which precede the two Tests in India.

Talking to Sky Sports, Harmison revealed: "I had a meeting with the coach and the captain on Wednesday to talk about the winter and where we were going to go to get me right for the Test matches.

"The one-dayers were mentioned, South Africa was mentioned where I went last year and I said I'd go away and think about it. I was putting the kids to bed yesterday afternoon and the coach rang to say Ryan was injured and asked me if I fancied it.

"I said I'd go away and think about it and an hour later I said I'd come back. I had to speak to Durham because they were in my mind after being so good to me since I came back from New Zealand to where I am now.

"That was in the thought process but I'm just chuffed to bits that they wanted me to come back and I'm just pleased to be back on the international scene again."

Captain Kevin Pietersen, who admitted following the Oval Test that he wanted Harmison in his one-day line-up, revealed how he had suggested his return during a meeting at the England hotel in Durham earlier this week.

Final go

"I'd been told by so many people to try to get Steve Harmison so I thought I'd give it a final go," said Pietersen.

"I met up with Steve at the hotel the other day after his game against Notts and he was pretty positive about things.

"The good thing is that he's helping us out of a situation with Ryan being injured yesterday so we rang him up and asked him whether he fancied it.

"He's as keen as anything. He said before he played that Test the other day that it felt like Christmas Eve so let's hope he delivers the same performance here as he did at The Oval."