Mark Harrity

Mark Andrew Harrity (born 9 March 1974) is a former Australian cricketer. He was born in Semaphore, a suburb of Adelaide. He was a very fast bowler but one who has seen his career repeatedly interrupted by injury. Unusually in the modern game, he was an extremely poor batsman even by the standards of specialist bowlers: in over 100 innings in first-class and List A level he never even reached 20.

Harrity made his first-class debut in the 1993-94 Sheffield Shield, for South Australia against Western Australia at the Adelaide Oval, but went wicketless. For his first victim he had to wait over two months until selected against Tasmania, when his single scalp was that of Shaun Young. It was the following season that he came good, taking 22 first-class wickets at 34.92, including a haul of 5-92 against Western Australia in February which would remain his best for seven years. He was also selected for the Australian Cricket Academy that season.

In 1995 Harrity toured England with Young Australia, playing five first-class matches as well as his first three List A games. For some seasons thereafter he played only for his state in Australia, always coming up with around 20 first-class wickets a season but never managing a really spectacular return, partly on account of his aforementioned injury problems. In 1997-98 he recorded his best List A bowling figures, 5-42 against Victoria, while 2001-02 saw his career-best first-class figures, 5-62 against Tasmania.

In 2003 Harrity returned to England to play county cricket for Worcestershire, using an EU passport. A minor but unwanted feat was to score no runs at all in five Twenty20 games for the county: two ducks, one 0* and two did-not-bats. In List A cricket he took 12 wickets at 23.58, but he did not have a successful first-class season, taking only 11 wickets in more than 166 overs at an average of only barely below 50.

He was retained by Worcestershire for 2004, but although he had a short run in the first team early in the season, his lack of batting ability meant there was nowhere to hide when his bowling did not fire, and eight wickets at 47.75 told its own story. In late May he played what was to prove his last first-class game, against Warwickshire, but must have wished he had not as he had a nightmare: he returned match figures of 13-0-74-0, made a pair and did not take a catch.

In June Harrity was reprimanded by the ECB for an incident in a second XI match, and this provided the final indignity to a generally miserable couple of seasons in England. Indeed, Harrity has not played top-level cricket since that time.

In 2009, Mark joined Adelaide Turf Club, Grange.