Monday 8 February 2010

Adding muscle and weight to a previously fragile frame has made all the difference in the world to Queensland and Australian ace Ryan Harris.

Harris, who has taken 17 wickets at 10.82 in five one-day internationals in the past fortnight, believes the bulking up has made a huge difference to his cricket career.

In contrast to re-born former XXXX GOLD Bull and Australian opener Shane Watson, who has benefitted enormously from ‘downsizing’, Harris’ extra kilos have been worth their weight in gold.

Harris hinted it did irk him when Redbacks skipper Graham Manou used to keep up to the stumps at times.

"I always used to raise the eyebrows at him and think 'geez I'm not going well at all' when he stood up to the stumps," Harris said.

"Five years ago I could still bowl okay, I would've been bowling at speeds in the low 130s. I didn't really measure or clock how fast I was going, but I'd be interested to see someone stand up to the stumps now - that'd be the telling part.

"But it was low 130s back then I think, and it's good to be able to get that little bit quicker."

Harris has regularly bowled mid to high 140kmh through the series against Pakistan and India, swinging the ball menacingly at the same time.

His watermark came in 2006, when he made a conscious decision to build up his body and add weight to his frame, which helped added increased momentum to his delivery stride.

"Ever since I've been that little bit heavier than I was four or five years ago I've actually picked up a bit of pace and had more momentum," Harris said.

"When I was younger I was always around the 80-81kg mark, and I just suffered a lot of injuries, whether it was growing or not I don't know, but ever since I've been about 95-96kg I seem to have done okay.

"I put that down to getting the extra pace, I haven't really done anything else."

Harris also sent out a lesson to younger players, admitting he had benefited from being more professional with his preparation than in earlier days.

"I've definitely improved my preparation with age,” he said. “Not that I was doing too many things wrong but having a few beers between games when I was a bit younger.”

"The (last) couple of days I had off between Perth and Melbourne I did a lot of resting, a little bit of walking and a lot of water rather than going and having beers with mates or something like that - you've just got to be a bit smarter.

"That comes down to being a little older and a little wiser."