Devon Malcolm was one of the fast bowlers of his time. He represented England in 40 Test matches and 10 ODIs. Back then, he was considered to be one of the toughest bowlers to face, although the batters had relative success against him. After the retirement of the likes of Chris Old, Mike Hendrick, Bob Willis, and Derek Underwood, England went through a transition period.
They lost to a lot of teams in the mid-1980s. They never won a Test match against the West Indies in 16 years. They lost their second Test series at home to India. England also lost home Ashes to Australia. They were going through their worst phase. Some of the players from England decided to take part in the rebel tours in the late 1980s, which led to Malcolm’s debut for the European side.
He was a regular for England for almost half a decade and bowled some of the most memorable spells. The best of them was unarguably his 9/57 against South Africa, which is one of the best spells by a bowler in the history of cricket. To date, he is remembered for the same spell by the fans. The fans often cheered him when he came out to bat.
Given his weakness as a batter, there was a feeling of underdog among the fans. Whenever he scored runs, the fans celebrated as if he hit a hundred. At times, there used to be a competition between him and Phil Tufnell for the spot of number 11 in England. He took 128 wickets in the longest format of the game at a bowling average of 37.1, at an economy rate of 3.36 in 40 appearances.
In ODIs, he claimed 16 wickets in 10 matches at a bowling average of 25.2, at an economy rate of 4.60. Till England found better bowlers like Andy Caddick, Darren Gough, and others, Malcolm was a mainstay in the playing XI. In the mid-1990s, Devon lost his form and lost his most important skill – Being quick. As a result, he was not preferred by England anymore. He played some games in the county and retired on a good note.