'Selfish characters playing for England' - Former England cricketer gives bold statement on legendary English Greats

England Cricket Team has produced many great legends who have given their 100% and more to the team whenever they were expected to. However, recent reports suggest that there were some biases and partiality going on inside the team. Former England pacer Steve Harmison emphasised that the side featured a lot of egotistical cricketers prior to the Ashes Series in 2005 while talking to former Australian pacer Jason Gillespie.

Gillespie talked about how Michael Vaughan's skills in organising his troops and the players' willingness to follow his example during the 2005 Ashes series were the highlights of how intense England was throughout that series. After which, Harmison replied that there was a change in guards and they started playing as a team.

"England would normally go out in dribs or drabs going onto the field... (but this time) it was really noticeable that as soon as the umpires walked out there, (England skipper) Michael Vaughan was straight out there, everyone was straight out there, quick chat and then they would literally run to their fielding positions, the bowler would run and hand his cap to the umpire and before our batters were halfway onto the ground, the whole England team was set up ready to play, ready to rock," Gillespie was quoted as saying by NDTV Sports.

"We'd grown up as a team, we played as a team and we behaved off the field like a team (in 2005). In 1997, 2001, 2003/04, you had a lot of selfish characters playing for England," said Harmison.

Scathing revelation by Steve Harmison

Harmison played 63 matches in his Test career and took 226 wickets, however, he said that quite a few "selfish" players contributed to the poor culture in the England side. He also recalled that Nasser Hussain, Michael Atherton, and Graham Thorpe, among others, didn't help England become a team. 

"Some great cricketers, don't get me wrong but when you look at and I've got no problem saying this, the likes of Nasser (Hussain), Athers (Michael Atherton), Thorpey (Graham Thorpe), Corkey (Dominic Cork), Darren Gough, Andy Caddock, there was a group of individuals playing altogether as a team where you look at 2005, we were a team," added Harmison