STEVE Harmison has hailed Mike Hussey's contribution to Durham's scintillating start to the season, claiming the skipper's "winning mentality" has spread to the rest of the squad.

Hussey's arrival at the Riverside has coincided with Durham's best-ever run in the County Championship, with last week's nine-wicket win at Old Trafford maintaining a 100 per cent start to the campaign.

The Australian opener has played a pivotal role in that success. His 538 County Championship runs have been scored at an average of 107.6 and his presence has strengthened a top order that regularly failed to spark last season.

While his cricketing ability has helped to bring about improvements on the field, his character and temperament have also led to changes in the Durham dressing room.

Hussey's Antipodean background means that winning is everything and, while that might not sit easily with some of cricket's purists, it is an approach that is already reaping rewards.

"He's very much a hard-edged Aussie," said Harmison, who will be forced to sit out tomorrow's four-day game with Yorkshire as he prepares for England's forthcoming Test series with Bangladesh.

"He comes from a background where winning is all that matters and second is nothing. He's brought that winning mentality with him and passed it on to the other lads.

"Mike's been really good to have around and he's got to take a lot of credit for what's happened this season.

"I spoke earlier in the year about the foundation that was left by the previous captain, Jon Lewis. That was a good building block but Mike has come in and added a bit of steel with his Australian mentality.

"He hasn't been scarred with Durham's past and he's come in with his eyes wide open. He's probably been sitting at home thinking 'What's been the problem here in the past'.

"A few of the lads have been ribbing Jon about what he's been doing for the last four years! But, joking aside, Jon did a great job as captain and Mike's taken that on."

Hussey could not have wished for a better start to his life in the North-East but the equally eye-catching performances of his team-mates have meant that he has to share the limelight.

Phil Mustard and Liam Plunkett have both impressed in the early weeks of the season and Harmison feels Durham's youngsters are benefiting from having some older heads around them.

"We've had good young players here at Durham from the year dot but it seems like we've always had young players playing with other young players," he said. "In my opinion, that's not good.

"You don't improve with a situation like that. You get into bad habits, because you get into a rut and you don't have the experienced lads around to get you out of it.

"If you're playing with players who have seen it all before, they'll help you to take stock and not let things get on top of you.

"Mike and Dale Benkenstein have come with bags of experience, and both Paul (Collingwood) and myself have been able to play a lot of cricket at the start of this season. That's been a help to the young lads."

Some of that help is about to disappear though. Harmison is unlikely to play for Durham again this season, while Hussey will team up with the Australian one-day squad for six weeks at the end of this weekend's game with Yorkshire.

New Zealander Nathan Astle will be arriving to replace him and, after starting so strongly, Harmison is confident Durham will not miss their internationals too much.

"Obviously I'm away now," he said. "Hopefully that won't affect things too much.

"We had to leave Mark Davies out the other week and he's top of the averages.

"I would think he will come straight in for me and hopefully, when Mike and Paul go out for the one-dayers, we'll already have a strong platform for promotion."

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