Wisden overview
Ian Harvey is not so much an allrounder as a cricketer liable to pull off the occasional miraculous deed in any of the game's multifarious disciplines. Thus Victorian team-mates christened him "Freak". A one-time wicketkeeper, he is an orthodox batsman who can tear an attack apart with his clean hitting, a skidding medium-pacer who has made an art of a deadly slower ball delivered with his wrist facing the batsman, and a taker of blinding infield catches. He is definitively a cricketer not measurable by figures. He became a one-day regular for Australia, often bowling effectively at the death. In England, he inspired Gloucestershire to a series of one-day trophies. Injuries caused him to lose his Australian one-day spot in the 2002-03 season, but the late withdrawal of Shane Watson with a spinal stress fracture led to an 11th-hour call for Harvey to join the party for the 2003 World Cup. Greg Baum

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