'Selectors not really interested in what’s going on in county cricket,' says Harmison

"You’ve got a round of County Championship matches going on so the actual selectors are watching the Test matches and they’re not watching county cricket. That tells me they’re not really interested in what’s going on in county cricket"

^{Steve Harmison believes the selectors are mismanaging English cricket}

Former England fast bowler Steve Harmison has criticised the England selectors and their team of scouts for their contribution to the “mismanagement” in English cricket right now.

Speaking to ESPNcricinfo, Harmison stated: “You just go on our team selection so far, we’ve picked two players who haven’t played county cricket this year.

“We’ve picked Jos Buttler who came straight from the IPL and never played county cricket and we picked Adil Rashid, who actually retired from county cricket, to come and play in the Test matches.”

The ex-Durham quick continued: “Another thing on the selectors, I’ve seen them on the TV twice now. You’ve got two selectors sitting at the Test match, you’ve got a round of County Championship matches going on so the actual selectors are watching the Test matches and they’re not watching county cricket. That tells me they’re not really interested in what’s going on in county cricket.”

The selections of Jos Buttler and, especially, Adil Rashid by new national selector Ed Smith earlier in the summer came in for some criticism with many who believed that this sent out negative messages to those performing well on the county scene who are being overlooked for white-ball stars.

England’s struggles in the third Test at Trent Bridge have reopened the debate about selection and Harmison said he is unhappy with the scouting network in place for monitoring county players.

“They’ll say they’ve got scouts but they’ve only really got three or four scouts that are potentially active.

“Steve Rhodes has gone off to coach Bangladesh, Chris Read is one of them – he was actually at Trent Bridge probably on a jolly with his Nottinghamshire mates because it was his home ground in the last couple of days, and you’ve got Jonathan Trott and Marcus Trescothick both still playing County Championship matches. Glen Chapple is coaching too.”

The 2005 Ashes winner added: “So where are these players going to be coming from if they’re standing out and who’s watching?

“It’s all well and good saying ‘county cricket, county cricket, county cricket’ but actually somebody’s got to be watching them, passing judgement on them and thinking, you know what, he’s good enough to play or I see huge technical deficiencies where he’s not good enough to play. I just think that is the mismanagement that’s happening with English cricket at this time.”