What are you doing now? I hear you help out a few players so does that make you an agent?
No, no, I help out a few players, like Tino Best, because I know what it was like when I played trying to find clubs or getting into things. I knew Tino from when he was a little boy from my first West Indies tour in 1989-90 as he was the nephew of Carlisle Best. I’ve helped him get on the right road but I don’t charge like an agent, it’s just helping people out. I have guys from the Caribbean asking if I can find them a club and I do that, but not for any money. Everybody needs a break and I remember how I needed a break years ago.

So what are you up now then?
I’m still involved in cricket and do a bit of coaching but my main job is designing cricket equipment. I sell sightscreens, mobile cages for nets, non-turf pitches, netting, anything to do with a cricket field really. I have a few branded products in the Devon Malcolm range. It comes under the name Johnjac Cricket Supplies (not connected with the Jean-Jacques he played with at Derbyshire!). The products are doing very well and we supply a lot to clubs and schools.

This is a very competitive business, so are you now in competition against guys like Derek Underwood, who has made non-turf pitches for years?
Well as a matter of fact Underwood is stocking our stuff now. They specialise in the pitches but are now also selling Devon Malcolm tunnel cages, netting and items like that. We design and manufacture and he distributes.

You ended up as a bit of a nomad in county cricket once you left Derbyshire after 14 years, playing for Northamptonshire and then Leicestershire, so where are you based now?
I stayed in a village in Northampton and travelled to Leicester from there as it’s not far on the motorway. It’s a nice spot, the kids are in school there and I’m looking to settle there.

You were one of England’s premier fast bowlers of your generation along with the likes of Darren Gough and Andrew Caddick. How do you rate the current crop?
What I envy about the guys now is that, when I played you didn’t know if you were coming or going, you played one game and even if you did well you could be out. What I do enjoy with the system they have now is that the guys who are there know they will have a run and know they have got management backing. So from that viewpoint I wish I had a coach who said, ‘You are a part of this team, just concentrate on the opposition’. My problem was never the opposition, it was coaches and management as I always felt I would get dropped if I bowled a bad over. It was a nightmare in terms of team cohesion. The guys now are allowed to work on their game, feel part of the system and bowl relaxed.

So what about Steve Harmison, has he benefited from this great system? Clearly, after England's defeat in the first Test against New Zealand, he seems to have a few worrying issues?
Harmison has got so much talent, he is a talented cricketer. I played against Harmy in county cricket and I kept saying ‘this guy is going to be a lovely bowler’ because of his pace and the steep bounce he gets. But I noticed early on that he had a problem with homesickness. He thought the North East was the world. As soon as he had to play in Northampton or Leicester, he seemed to struggle. I got that impression from the early days, that he felt so uncomfortable playing away from the North East. Later on when his international career developed I wasn’t surprised when all these homesickness problems began.

So you still believe homesickness is at the root of his problems?         Absolutely. I keep thinking ‘bloody hell, what an opportunity, I’d travel the world to play for my country for nothing’ let alone get paid well for it. You would think, ‘Homesickness while playing for your country? That can’t happen’ but it does happen with some people and Harmy is one of those guys. He says he’s getting over it but you can tell he feels very uncomfortable away from the North East, playing in places like New Zealand, India, West Indies, Australia etc. These are nice places and you have to try and enjoy the locals and the culture if you want to play for England in those areas. I don’t believe he switches over well enough.

Does he still have what it takes to lead England's attack?                 Yes. If he gets his head right he is a fantastic bowler and he has all the talent. But your fast bowler in the team is your confidence pin and when he knocks the openers over it has a positive affect on the whole side, but when he isn’t stamping his authority on the opposing batsmen it sends negative feelings throughout the whole team. I’m talking from experience. Your batters are looking for you to knock their openers over, not think, ‘Oh bloody hell, what is he going to do today? Is he going to be up for it?’ Even if your fast bowler gets hit for a couple of fours you want to know that your fast bowler is going to come back at the batsmen strong. Not roll up and die and hide in a corner. I hope and I’m sure the boys are constantly talking to Harmy to build him up but I also feel from his point of view that he needs to make the guys around him feel confident in him. When I watched him bowl that first ball in the last Ashes (to second slip), I knew the series was over already. I had never seen a ball like that and I felt sorry for Harmy but what I am saying is that you could see all the fielders' heads drop. They were embarrassed. You not only have to send a signal to the opposition dressing room with pace and bounce in the right area but also to your own team-mates to say, ‘Guys I’m here and I’m up for it’. From that first ball in the Ashes I knew Harmy wasn’t up for it and you could see the embarrassment on the other guys’ faces. They were on top of the world in 2005, when Harmy began that with hostility and venom, but after that first ball in Brisbane they were on the ground and knew it was going to be a bloody tough series.   

How important is it to England’s chances of winning back the Ashes next year that Harmison returns to his best form?
It’s essential, we need to get him firing, confident again and get him going. It’s imperative that if we are to challenge for the Ashes, Harmy is ready. I don’t think (Simon) Jones will be back but you need Harmison at his best. We need Freddie back as well but it’s Harmy we will look to, to stamp his authority on their batsmen.

Is this current New Zealand series the start of the countdown to the 2009 Ashes?
No I want the guys to take bite size steps and take each series at a time. Focus on the New Zealand tour, get that over with and then we have New Zealand coming back to England, followed by South Africa, then we keep moving on. There is a lot of work to do before Australia. If we get beat by New Zealand and South Africa our confidence will be hit hard and we need to start that Australia series high on confidence.

Changing the subject and looking back at your career, you would have thought that with bowlers of the calibre of Malcolm, Gough, Caddick and Cork, backed by batsmen like Thorpe, Atherton, Hick and Stewart, England should have achieved a lot more?
They should have done more, but if you look over the years and a bit further to the Gooch era, England produced some very good cricketers but with the style of management we have had nobody ever clicked well enough to be consistent. The talent has always been there but if you look at the Australians, they also know what you have to do to build a winning team, to build momentum and continuity so they go on and win matches and series. This is what we need to do again now.

Talking of the Australians, what was it like to stand on your mark and look down and see batsmen like Mark Taylor, Michael Slater and Steve Waugh? Were you ever intimidated by these guys?
I never felt intimidated. To be honest those guys are great players – Steve Waugh was probably the batsman I respected the most but because he was such a mean batsman and such a tough cricketer, I felt I bowled better. I knew I had to concentrate and be at the top of my game to do well or get him out. I looked forward to bowling at Steve Waugh because he made me lift my game and concentrate. You wasted your time bowling short balls at him and you knew you had to bowl at the top of off stump every ball; you bowl off line and he hit you.

What motivated you at other times?
You always had to be motivated for the simple reason that you never get an easy game of cricket when you play for England. Every team raises their game for England. They know that if they play well against England that could be the making of them, whether it’s someone in a Test team, a President’s XI or an Academy XI.   

Devon Malcolm was speaking with Richard Sydenham at the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi while touring with Lashings

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