Where Are They Now: Devon Malcolm

Devon Malcolm terrorised batsmen through an illustrious career. One of the fastest bowlers of his generation, he led the England attack, took more than 1000 first class wickets for Derbyshire, Northamptonshire and Leicestershire and was renowned for his definite number 11 style as a batsman.

Since calling time on his career in 2003, Malcolm has remained in the sport he loves. He wanted to, and still does now as a 52-year-old, give something back to the game that made him into a household name.

Malcolm toyed with the idea of becoming an umpire but shelved those plans to set up Cambridgeshire-based company DEM Sports, which makes and provides state of the art cricket equipment to clubs, counties and overseas clients and schools.

“Towards the end of my career I realised that cricket facilities needed to be made simpler,” Malcolm said. “Groundsmen should prepare grounds and not be worrying about practice facilities. That was my philosophy. I had an idea, got together with John Loveday, who is the fabricator, and put it down on paper.”

Malcom wanted to create a range of innovative products that could make the life of ground staff and cricket clubs easier and therefore benefit the game as a whole. The range now includes covers, sightscreens, mobile cages and nets, folding cages, bowling and catching machines, rollers, boundary rope winders and the unique DEM Concertina Cricket cage that makes playing the game in confined space possible.

Malcolm added: “Normal practice facilities like the cages need to be wheeled onto the square and only allow a batsman and a bowler. One thing we did was put a back to it. The idea is that you can open it and the wicketkeeper can keep wicket behind, learn if the ball is swinging. You can also have the slips - first and second slip - getting practice at the same time.

"Ten to 12 years ago, when Twenty20 cricket was coming in, groundsmen would spend so much time putting black sheets on the sightscreens before a game. It would take up to 2-3 hours of their time to get it up. We thought, wouldn’t it be easier to have two sides - one side white, one side black - that you could use for each type of cricket. So we came up with the idea a few years back. That’s not only for first class cricket, but also clubs too. We are just looking to improve things and improve cricket facilities.”

DWM Sports now supplies to Northamptonshire, Essex, Leicestershire, Hampshire, Warwickshire, Lancashire, Worcester and Somerset County Cricket Clubs as well as schools, universities, village and club crickets sides and to overseas clients in Jamaica, Sardinia and Dubai.

The company has even branched out into making equipment for other sports including football, golf, tennis, athletics, basketball and table tennis as well as rugby posts and fitness samba sports equipment.

With such a busy day job, does Malcolm, who still holds the record for best figures for an England bowler with his 9-57 against South Africa at the Oval in 1994, still find time to pull on the whites?

The answer is undoubtedly yes.

On the field, he represents the Lashings charity side and is playing in the Masters tournaments too. Off it, he is an ambassador for the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) and has worked alongside the Chance To Shine charity to help bring cricket back into state schools.

“Towards the end of my career I did my level three coaching,” he said. “I thought to myself ‘do you want to go into coaching Dev?’. I even did an umpiring course. I was always the type of person who was going to be involved in the game.

"I’m playing in the Masters tournaments and playing in games to raise money for charity throughout the year for various causes. It’s good to put something back into the game. Some of the players are still feisty. I’ve still got pride and can get a quick ball down when I need to.

"I have also done a bit for Chance to Shine, who are getting cricket back into state schools.

“When I was growing up, kids played a lot more cricket, but they haven’t got the space for cricket fields now. But with our equipment it can be played where space is at a premium - for instance we have a little cage that allows kids to play in the playground instead of playing bulldog or something.

"I believe cricket is the best team sport ever and now there are two million kids playing cricket. We’ve got the England women’s team doing well now and half of those kids playing now will be girls. The future looks bright if they continue.”

So, after all these years, how does he look back on his time a professional? “I was a player for 19 years and I really can’t complain,” he says. “If someone had said to me I’d take 1000 wickets when I first started out with Derbyshire in 1984, particularly starting late, I’d have taken that.”