'I Never Said I Didn't Want to Play for England Again'

Steve Harmison took a passionate swipe last night at the "crap" written about him during his five-month stint in international exile after spearheading England's best bowling effort of the series on his return to the Test side. Harmison found himself on a hat-trick, having earlier had Graeme Smith dropped off the first ball of the match, and later hit out at those who questioned his commitment during his spell on the sidelines.

"I've missed it," he said. "I had an interesting chat with Marcus Trescothick a few weeks ago. He's happy playing for Somerset, but I couldn't retire from international cricket. The amount of crap that's been written, saying I don't want to play and I'm not interested - my country means a lot to me."

Harmison admitted the feeling he got from bowling South Africa's No3 Hashim Amla the ball after having Smith caught at fine leg was not one he had experienced too often while bowling for Durham since the start of the summer. "I'm not knocking county cricket," he said, "but you might get that feeling once every six weeks when you get a top player out. When you've got 18,000 people cheering you on - that's why I was never going to let my Test career go. I was so excited before the game it was like Christmas Eve.

"I know things weren't going very well, and it was right that I was dropped. But I had a break, I feel refreshed, and I feel better than I was. Hopefully this is a long road to a more successful 12 months ahead."

Harmison also aimed a barb at two ex-England captains in the Sky commentary box for suggesting that the groove he located was purely a result of getting overs under his belt at domestic level. "Nasser [Hussain] and Athers [Mike Atherton] can sit there and say playing county cricket got me to where I am now. But it's not the be all and end all. I always believed I'd get back to the England side. Now I've put the ball back in the selectors' court."