Friendships main reason for Harris’ longevity

Veteran Green Island wicketkeeper-batsman Anthony Harris celebrates his long career with daughter...
Veteran Green Island wicketkeeper-batsman Anthony Harris celebrates his long career with daughter Isla (6) and son Zak (4) at their home earlier this week. The photograph is of his son, Archie, who died in November last year. Photo: Linda Robertson
Anthony Harris may be on the cusp of a major milestone.

Then again he may have already reached the mark.

Either way, today’s match against Carisbrook-Dunedin at Sunnyvale ought to serve as a celebration for a wonderful achievement.

The Green Island veteran will play his 300th or possibly his 301st senior game — the records are unclear — 19 years after making his debut for the club in 1999.

The milestone has given the wicketkeeper-batsman an opportunity to reflect on his long cricket career this week. There have been many highs and lows but there have always been some great friendships. And if cricket and life has taught the Kavanagh College teacher anything, it is that the relationships you form are what matters the most.

It has been a tough 12 months for the Harris family. Harris and wife Marina (36) and children Isla (6) and Zak (4) are still trying to rebuild their lives after their son and brother, Archie, died nearly a year ago. He died peacefully in his sleep, just short of his second birthday.

Archie is never far from their thoughts and was on his dad’s mind when he sat down with the Otago Daily Times to reminisce about his career.

For the 36-year-old, this season is an opportunity to do something normal, something familiar and something which has always brought joy.

Harris got his start in senior cricket for Green Island at the end of the 1999 season. He left the club about five or six years later and had a lengthy stint at Taieri, where he played 139 games.

But he returned to Green Island as promised. He had lost a little passion for the game but rediscovered it in the familiar surroundings at Sunnyvale.

There are many reasons why he has kept playing so long, but mainly it is the friendships which have kept him involved.

"I guess at the end of the day I love the team aspect of it and trying to perform for yourself but also contribute for the team.

"Cricket is a tough game. There are a lot of downs between the ups. When you have that success it is well worth it, so there is that element about it."But mainly it is the social aspect of it  ... and having a beer afterwards."

The Green Island cricket community is close one. He has played with or against the likes of Dion Lobb and Mark Joyce for around two decades.

"It is a great group and we have a lot of fun. Guys like Alun Kennedy, even though he is not coaching any more, has helped create a great culture — a winning one but also an enjoyable culture.

"That makes you want to go back because it is a pretty tight-knit group."

Harris has collected two titles with Taieri and five with Green Island. He is not sure how many centuries he has scored but it is about "four of five". He struck his high score of 155 against Kaikorai in 2016-17 and was named club player of the year that season.

But one of the major highlights of his career also slots neatly into the other category. Harris was called into the Otago team in 2005.

He was asked to open the batting and played two first-class games for the Volts on a seam-friendly University of Otago Oval.

His debut was against Wellington and his final match against a star-studded Canterbury line-up.

The attack that day featured Shane Bond, Chris Cairns, Hamish Bennett and Richard Sherlock, who was the quickest of them all and really liked digging it in short.

Harris scored just 17 runs in four innings and never got another opportunity.

"At the time it just knocked me in terms of my confidence because things didn’t go as I wanted them to or as I’d planned.

"It was a tough introduction but I don’t regret anything about it. I got the opportunity to play, it was just the circumstances meant I was playing against experienced attacks.

"Sometimes, when you get those opportunities, you just need a few things to go your way.

"A slightly different time against a different attack or on a different wicket and things could have been different.

"But unfortunately for me, they were the only two opportunities I got. I didn’t get another bite at it."

Otago has a better programme operating beneath the first-class team these days, so players are better equipped. But equally, the standard has dropped. It is not often international players such as the likes of a  Bond or a Cairns pop up at Plunket Shield level anymore.

"I would have liked to have pushed on and played more first-class games but that wasn’t to be.

"I think everyone is the same. I would have liked to have scored more runs for both clubs over the years but I’ve made some awesome mates and had some great times.

"Now it is just a matter of enjoying each Saturday and taking it as it comes."

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