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Malcolm Bows Out

Friday, September 19 2003

England fast bowling legend Devon Malcolm has retired from First Class Cricket after 21 seasons in the County Game.

Malcolm, now 40, was born in Kingston, Jamaica and played for Derbyshire (14 years), Northamptonshire (4) and Leicestershire (3), taking 128 wickets at 37.09 in 40 Tests, and 1,054 at 30.33 in all First Class Cricket. He took just 16 wickets at 25.25 in only 10 ODIs - his batting (First Class Average 7.84) and often calamitous fielding counted very much against him in the shorter form of the game.

He will be best remembered for one of the most devastating fast bowling spells in Test history, with a sensational - and match-winning - 9/57 against South Africa at the Oval in 1994 after being hit on the helmet - a display which will be immortalised by the legendary utterance "You Guys is History".

Malcolm, speaking to the Daily Mirror, lashed out at the increasing masses of EU qualified players who are "abusing the county system" and advocated a "gentleman's agreement to pick a minimum of nine England-qualified players".

"You have to pay their wages, give them a car, rent them a flat, look after their families. Where is all that money coming from? Instead of giving our best prospects valuable experience in the County Championship, we are preparing these guys to come back one day and bite the hand that once fed them."

"Other foreign players on the fringes of Test cricket come here, take notes about our bright prospects store them on lap-tops and use the knowledge to undermine England in further series. I would not call it spying as such, but what is in it for English cricket? They take money out of our game, keep in touch with developments in our domestic cricket and we are left with no trump cards. We are a bit too accommodating."

"It's fantastic when you get world-class figures like Viv Richards playing whole seasons at Somerset because people of his stature are role models. I have no problem with people like that acting as guiding lights for our young players."

"I've had a privileged career and I would not have swapped the last 19 years for anything," he told The Mirror. "Back in 1984 I took a year out from my business studies course to have a crack at playing first class cricket - and nearly 20 years later, I'm still going."

"But although I can still bowl pretty quick, I don't want to be remembered as a guy who scraped the barrel too much. Bowling medium pace is not an option … I want people to remember me making the South Africans hop around and diving for cover. Instead of young batsmen licking their lips and thinking, 'Here comes the old man' I hope they will offer a sigh of relief that I'm stepping down."

Don't worry, Dev, you'll always have a special place in every English cricket fan's heart.

Posted by Neil