N Hallam: Malcolm 'refused to bowl' charge (14 Jun 1998)

14 June 1998

Malcolm 'refused to bowl' charge

By Neil Hallam

DEVON MALCOLM was accused yesterday of refusing to bowl during a championship game last season as the bitter in-fighting which caused so much upheaval for Derbyshire last summer refused to die down.

In his new book, You Guys Are History, published this week, Malcolm makes a number of caustic observations about the reasons for his decision to leave the County Ground at the end of last season - with the ink still wet on a testimonial cheque for around £300,000 - and accept a lucrative three-year contract from Northamptonshire.

Among the complaints is one that Phil DeFreitas, who led Derbyshire from June when Dean Jones walked out, arranged practice sessions to coincide with Malcolm's testimonial events and let him down over one event in Guernsey.

The response from Malcolm's former team-mate has been to refer the book to a solicitor for advice over possible legal action and to air the extraordinary claim that he refused to bowl in a championship game at Worcester last September.

DeFreitas commented: "If Devon wants to have a go that's up to him but it disappoints me. It was a hard enough time for me without him raking things over again.

"It's true that I didn't go to one event in Guernsey but that was because it coincided with our end-of-season fitness tests. One thing I do remember very well is Devon refusing to bowl when I asked him to at Worcester when I was captain, but I still played golf for him at the Belfry a few days later."

The incident is alleged to have happened during Worcestershire's first innings, when Phil Weston made 188, Tom Moody 101 and David Leatherdale 93 out of a total of 554 for eight declared.

DeFreitas's claim is supported within the Derbyshire dressing room with players insisting: "Every time Daffy asked Dev to come on from the press box end he shook his head and mimed an off-spinner's action."

Malcolm did reappear at the other end later, bowling 23 overs in all for figures of one for 117, but he did not play in the county's one remaining championship fixture last season.

His claims of a policy of non-cooperation with his testimonial are also disputed by director of cricket Andy Hayhurst, who said: "Practice was never organised to affect Devon's benefit.

"In fact we asked him to give us more notice, so that things could be arranged to suit him, but he only let us know about most events the day before they were due to take place."

For Malcolm to complain at all about his testimonial season will be viewed as rich by many Derbyshire members because his final take - never publicly announced - is understood to be around six times the previous record for the county, Bob Taylor's £52,000 in 1981.

Long-serving Derbyshire member John Bolton had the final word. "When all is said and done, every one of the players who has left moaning about the club - Devon Malcolm, Chris Adams, Peter Bowler, John Morris - has gone elsewhere for a lot more money. All the rest is propaganda."

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)