Cricinfo - Players and Officials

Full name Paul Lee Harris
Born November 2, 1978, Salisbury (now Harare), Rhodesia
Current age 29 years 197 days
Major teams South Africa, Northerns, Titans, Warwickshire, Western Province
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Slow left-arm orthodox

Batting and fielding averages
	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct
Tests	13	19	3	116	46	7.25	421	27.55	0	0	13	0	8
ODIs	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2
First-class	70	87	13	977	55	13.20			0	1			29
List A	36	9	3	45	15*	7.50	84	53.57	0	0			15
Twenty20	14	4	3	5	3	5.00	8	62.50	0	0	0	0	4

Bowling averages
	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w
Tests	13	21	2657	1169	38	5/73	7/131	30.76	2.63	69.9	3	1
ODIs	3	3	180	83	3	2/30	2/30	27.66	2.76	60.0	0	0
First-class	70		15642	7000	238	6/54		29.41	2.68	65.7		12
List A	36		1530	1096	36	3/25	3/25	30.44	4.29	42.5	0	0
Twenty20	14	14	276	336	14	3/18	3/18	24.00	7.30	19.7	0	0

Career statistics
Test debut	South Africa v India at Cape Town, Jan 2-6, 2007 scorecard
Last Test	India v South Africa at Kanpur, Apr 11-13, 2008 scorecard
Test statistics
ODI debut	Bangladesh v South Africa at Chittagong (CDS), Mar 9, 2008 scorecard
Last ODI	Bangladesh v South Africa at Dhaka (SBNS), Mar 14, 2008 scorecard
ODI statistics
First-class debut	1998/99
Last First-class	India v South Africa at Kanpur, Apr 11-13, 2008 scorecard
List A debut	2002/03
Last List A	Bangladesh v South Africa at Dhaka (SBNS), Mar 14, 2008 scorecard
Twenty20 debut	Chilaw Marians Cricket Club v Titans at Leicester, Sep 16, 2005 scorecard
Last Twenty20	Warwickshire v Lancashire at Birmingham, Jul 18, 2007 scorecard

Profile

Slow left-armer Paul Harris is the latest man to be tasked with curing South African cricket's chief ailment - their continued failure to develop match-winning spinners at international level.

Tall and not unlike the former England star Phil Tufnell in appearance and style, Harris eventually made it into the South African squad for the Boxing Day Test against India in 2006.

The selectors had previously ignored his haul of 49 wickets in the 2005-06 SuperSport Series season, which no bowler bettered, and faced the prospect of him being lost to South African cricket when he played eight successful matches for Warwickshire as a Kolpak player in mid-2006. It was only after Nicky Boje stormed into retirement, finally disenchanted with his country's treatment of spinners, that the call went out for the 28-year-old.

Harris has made his name with the Titans under former Pakistan coach Richard Pybus and is a departure from the usual South African policy of choosing spinners who can also contribute with the bat and in the field. But he has been an integral part of his franchise's success at first-class level, combining accuracy, turn and bounce to claim higher honours.

Harris was born in Zimbabwe, then known as Rhodesia, in November 1978 but grew up in Cape Town, where his progress as a spinner was blocked by the former internationals Paul Adams and Claude Henderson.

Having made his first-class debut for the Western Province B side in 1998-99, he played a single match for the A side in 2000-01 and 2001-02 before moving to Northerns. He only booked his place in the side when Pybus became coach in 2005-06 and calls for the national selectors to consider him soon grew in volume. Harris gave up his Kolpak status at Warwickshire (where before his Test debut he wasn't classified as an overseas player) to play for South Africa in the New Years' Test against India. He took four wickets in the first innings - including one Sachin Tendulkar - and will perhaps be remembered most for his nagging, over-the-wicket line that decidely put the Indian batsmen in a shell, and helped South Africa wrest back the initiative.
Ken Borland January 2007

Apr 12, 2008

Paul Harris exults at the fall of Mahendra Singh Dhoni
© AFP

Apr 11, 2008

Paul Harris' charge results in disaster
© AFP

Mar 28, 2008

Paul Harris falls flat as Virender Sehwag marches on
© Getty Images

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