Young Victorian batsman added to Test squad

THE neighbours always knew when Marcus Harris was home as a kid.

Every summer, there was the unmistakeable banging coming from the backyard under the pergola.

“Our next door neighbour would always say to us, ‘I knew when you guys were home because I’d hear bang, thump, bang, thump’,’’ Harris’ father Kim said yesterday. “He’d say, ‘Bloody Marcus out in your backyard in the pergola, hitting the ball on the string and it goes up and over and hits the top of the pergola roof, bang’.

“Marcus would be out there for hours. You’d be watching the cricket and if there was an ad on, he’d grab his bat and start hitting the ball again, he’d do that for hours on end.’’

It’s one of Kim’s favourite tales about Harris’ early devotion to the game that was yesterday rewarded with selection in the Australian squad for next month’s first Test against India in Adelaide.

“We’re so excited Marco,’’ Kim said.

“Last night when he rang us, we’d only been talking on the phone probably 20 minutes before ... the phone rings again and it’s Marcus and he burst into tears and he goes ‘Dad, I’m in the team’. for

“We were screaming and yelling.’’

Harris’ eagerness to hone his batting technique was clear early in their Perth suburb of Kinglsey, but cricket wasn’t his first foray into sport. He initially played tee-ball as a youngster.

“I stopped him from playing cricket too early and I let him play tee-ball so he played teeball the first couple of years,’’ Kim said.