AND HELL Racism was there when I played but I had a 95mph missile in my hand
DEVON MALCOLM’S currency was 95mph “missiles” in his pomp – and the former England fast bowler delivered another rocket after the Yorkshire racism scandal.
“This has to be a watershed moment for cricket,” warned Malcolm, who tuned into Azeem Rafiq’s evidence to a parliamentary panel and was staggered by the harrowing content of his testimony.
“Watching Azeem speak so bravely opened a lot of old wounds and made me realise the game has not moved on as much as you might think.
“Racism was not invented in 2021. It was there 30 years ago when I was playing and it hasn’t gone away.
“But if cricket wants to do something about it, now is the time – because that young man was right: Racism is not banter, and it never was.
“Why did nobody from the management or staff step in and say, ‘You can’t say that, it’s not acceptable?’
“If you hear things in a dressing room that are not right and you keep quiet, then you are an accomplice. You are an accessory to the problem.
“I cannot bear to think how a young player was driven to thoughts of suicide, which is shocking.
“Historically, as an industry, cricket has had one of the highest rates of suicide. We should care a lot.”
Malcolm, now 58, took 128 wickets in 40 Tests for England, although he should have played in a lot more.
Too often he was discarded and then brought back when England decided they needed a deterrent after all and, like Rafiq, racism did not pass him by.
“When I started out, there was a racist character called Alf Garnett in a ‘comedy’ series on TV,” said Malcolm. “You would turn up at nets the following day and some of the lines from last night’s episode would be recycled. What was the worst thing said to me on a cricket field? Put it this way: I had the advantage of being a fast bowler with a memory like an elephant.
“If anyone upset me, for whatever reason, I always remembered when I had a 95mph missile in my hand.”
Big Dev’s finest hour was his thrillingly violent retribution when South Africa’s Fanie de Villiers pranged him on the helmet with a bouncer at The Oval in 1994 and he warned them: “You guys are history.”
His 9-57 paved the way for England to level the series and when they toured the Rainbow Nation 15 months later, Nelson Mandela dropped in on their warm-up match in Soweto and greeted Malcolm with the words: “Ah, I know you. You are the destroyer.”
Malcolm wants English cricket to follow Mandela’s example by following a purge of racism with reconciliation, forgiveness and education at the forefront of restoring the sport’s image.
He said: “I’m not going to demand that people lose their jobs. Nelson Mandela did not look for revenge after he served 27 years in prison – he wanted to unite his country as one people. But something is wrong because there are plenty of black and Asian guys who have played the game at the highest level, but not enough cream is rising to the top, whether it’s players, administrators or umpires.
“My son played at academy level and when his team went up to play in Yorkshire, he always found himself playing against serious talent from Asian backgrounds, but those young players never seemed to make it to the top of the system.
“They disappeared and it’s baffling.” Malcolm fears passive racism and glass ceilings prevent black faces from reaching boardroom level and managerial posts within cricket – a dismal trend also seen in football.
He warned: “If counties don’t even give them an interview or they don’t pass the first page of the recruitment process, what is going to change?
“There doesn’t seem to be any decision-making roles for these guys.
“Yorkshire treated Azeem Rafiq badly and they were so arrogant they decided nobody was to blame. I don’t want to call people out because that doesn’t solve anything, but this has got to be a watershed moment for the game.”