‘English cricketers don’t always have that fight’: Simon Harmer on lessons from a decade in county game

Simon Harmer has inspired Essex to two titles and regained a role in South Africa’s Test team in the past decade. Photograph: Ray Lawrence/TGS Photo/Shutterstock

For 10 seasons, few have earned the right to comment on English cricket more than Simon Harmer. Because for 10 seasons, no one has taken more County Championship wickets than the South African off-spinner who arrived at Essex in 2017 on a six-month contract, his international career stalled and his options narrowing fast.

He has since become one of the great imports of the English game: 522 first-class wickets and counting for Essex, two County Championship titles, a Bob Willis Trophy, a return to South Africa’s Test side and, perhaps most importantly, contentment. “My journey has been bumpy,” Harmer says from a sun-drenched beer garden near the Oval. “I can say now that I’m at peace with it.”