Ryan Harris’ troublesome knees have finally felled the gutsy paceman forever. On the eve of the first Ashes Test, the 35-year-old has retired from all forms of cricket.
Harris, who was 30 before he played his first Test, was melancholy at his retirement announcement – “I’ve been pretty lucky to have had a wonderful career, and nothing made me prouder than pulling on the baggy green.”
“I have played 27 more Tests than I ever thought I would, and I have relished every moment of them”.
>> MORE: Injuries force Ryan Harris’ immediate retirement
Australia coach Darren Lehmann, who captained Harris when he first started playing grade cricket in Adelaide, added “Ryan gave it his all for his country, and he epitomised everything the baggy green stands for.
“We are certainly proud of everything he has achieved”.
Yorkshire’s Australian coach Jason Gillespie summed up Ryan Harris best by saying, “great bowler, even better bloke”.
That’s bad news for England. Harris will be replaced by a fit NSW expressman Pat Cummins, making selection of the Australian pace attack even more difficult with
the likes of Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Peter Siddle and Cummins available.
But the final salute is to Ryan Harris for making the painful but correct decision to call it a day.
On the other side of the coin, Robbie Farah’s broken right hand should have already ruled the NSW hooker out of the Origin decider at Suncorp next Wednesday, after undergoing surgery last week to have a plate and pins inserted.
That’s at least a three-week off duty injury, but Farah’s determined to play, which is both selfish and stupid.
There’s never any doubt about Farah being a genuine tough nut, but he’s selfish wanting to play in such a big decider when he’s not fit enough, and stupid because his right hand could well suffer permanent damage, all because of an 80-minute game of football.
Standing by is Sharks’ hooker Michael Ennis, who last played Origin four years ago when he was replaced by Farah.
But of late, Ennis has been the better performer, so make yourself unavailable Robbie Farah and let the Blues get on with full-on preparation for what looms as a cracker at Suncorp.
Pumping Dougie
Roar Guru
Robbie who? I think this article lacks a tad of respect for Harris. To suggest the Pom's are worse off without him in Australia's line-up, replaced by Pat Cummins, ignores his outstanding record (which the article omits to highlight). Yes, he's only played 27 tests over 5 or 6 years due to injury, but he's been phenomenal in most of those tests. He will go down marginally ahead of Bruce Reid as the best sub-30 test player of all time (who ironically also played just 27 tests). A rugby player doesn't derserve to be mentioned in the same breath.
Stevo
Guest
Anyone who thinks farah will play is seriously niave. This whole thing is based purely trying to make it seem like ennis wasn't going to be playing all along. It is no different to the lote-Tba thing except that in 2002, qld didn't try to cover up what they were really doing.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Perhaps, but there are going to be so many people writing articles like that, so he's probably trying to find something different that he can write rather than just write one of the 23,456 articles eulogising Harris career and talking about how wonderful he is and how sad that his career had to end like this etc.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
I suspect this is the case. They want Ennis to play, so by pretending Farah is still trying to be fit to play they game it means that Ennis can come in as a late replacement after he's served his ban.
Pat Malone
Guest
Surely if the coach and medical staff think he is ready, that's all that matters
Mitcher
Guest
Thugby league. Clever.
Christo the Daddyo
Guest
Nailed it.
jeznez
Roar Guru
Hats off to Ryan, wonderful cricketer and a shame we won't get to have him represent us any more.
Lancey5times
Guest
I only thing I find puzzling with the article really is how the Poms are worse off with Harris not playing. The Robbie Farah inclusion is not something I care about as it is thugby league
Chris
Guest
No, comparing the two situations is disrespectful. Harris' career is over because his long term injury has turned out to be worse than first thought. There is no discussion re: inconveniencing the team. His knees are shot, he can't play. Farah has a non-career-threatening hand injury. He's got a game in a few days and he's hoping to be ready. If he doesn't make it he'll be playing again within in a couple of weeks.
jamesb
Guest
You have given Lords article some sense Sheek and power to you. However, I'm of the belief that when a sportsperson retires, an article should be dedicated sorely on the retiree and paying tribute to his/ her career with their list of achievements, memorable moments, legacy etc etc.
sheek
Roar Guru
Gee, you guys are being disrespectful. The point by David is that Ryan Harris knew his body was no longer up to test cricket. He wasn't going to compromise his team's performance by pretending he could continue. At the moment Robbie Farah is still planning to play in SOO3 with a broken hand. Obviously, if this happens, it will inconvenience him, & the team. I guess David is suggesting this is delusional courage not in the NSW Blues best interest. In this context, it's a fair enough article.
Lancey5times
Guest
Of course David's a doctor. When I was ill recently he prescribed a session drinking with Thommo and to rest a cold plate on my head
JimmyB
Guest
Yeah fair enough.
Gad
Guest
The 3 of you have missed the point. Davids` article is not a tribute to Ryan Harris` career or retirement, I`m sure David will pen a fitting article about these 2 things in the near future. 3 cases of not seeing the forest because of the trees?
Pat Malone
Guest
Are you a doctor david? How do you know the extent of Robbie's injury? Surely it's a decision for the coach to make
Kramer
Guest
Agree! The roar show that quantity beats quailty eveyday of the week.
Lancey5times
Guest
Are you not familiar with David's previous articles and the consistent lack of understanding of anything? I suggest you refer to IAP's comment a little further on
Lancey5times
Guest
Fantastic :)
IAP
Guest
I think you're both missing the point here. David is celebrating Rhino's career the only way he knows - with an article that doesn't make sense.