Cricket: STRONG HARM TACTICS; EXCLUSIVE: MALCOLM'S PLAN FOR CARIBBEAN GLORY Steve reggae to rumble says Dev.

Byline: Mike WALTERS

DEVON MALCOLM is tipping England for glory in the Caribbean this winter if they bank on Steve Harmison and Simon Jones to break the dreadlock.

England have not won a series in the West Indies for 35 years, although they came desperately close when Malcolm fired them to the brink of a sensational upset in 1990.

Deadly Dev, who announced his retirement from first-class cricket in Mirror Sport yesterday, says Harmison and Jones will be "top of the bill" when England bid to retain the Wisden Trophy in the new year.

And Malcolm, England's fastest bowler for a generation, revealed how Harmison produced Test-best figures against South Africa at The Oval this month after a pep-talk from the old master himself.

Even after the retirement of Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh the Windies remain a tough nut to crack among their palm trees and pina coladas.

But with Harmison coming to terms with Test cricket, and Jones expected to complete his recovery from a horrific knee injury in Australia last winter, Malcolm says England should get reggae to rumble.

Grievous Bodily Harmison's 4-33, which paved the way for England to level the series against the Springboks, proved he was ready to pack a rum punch in the Caribbean. Malcolm said: "When I look at Harmison I see a lot of myself in the way he bowls. He is tall, he generates good pace and bounce, and at times he really looks the part. I went up to him at The Oval and told him to believe in himself. I said 'If you go out and take four wickets you will win us the game,' and that's what happened.

"You can talk as much as you like about potential but this is Harmison's time - he is the quickest guy out there, and he is the future of fast bowling in England.

"Hopefully that game will be a launching pad for him. When Steve dismissed Gary Kirsten and Jacques Kallis in consecutive overs, I wanted to welcome him to the club of England pace bowlers who have given South Africa some grief at The Oval.

"And that's what I want to see him doing in the Caribbean. He's a strike bowler - if he gets a couple of key batsmen out like that, he's going to put his side in the game every time.

"I'm not saying that I had anything to do with it, but sometimes it's the little things which can make all the difference in Test cricket.

"Maybe it was just a matter of Steve hearing it from someone who has been there and done it."

Jones, the Welsh whirlwind whose promising Test career was cut short by ruptured cruciate ligaments just seven overs into his second cap, is Malcolm's choice to share the new ball with Harmison in the West Indies.

Malcolm said: "Harmison and Jones should be leading England's attack in the West Indies. They will be the fastest bowlers on either side and they will be top of the bill.

"Some of the pitches out there are flatter these days, but if those two run in hard, bowl quick and get the supporters behind them they could make a big impact."

Colin Cowdrey was the last England captain to win a series in the West Indies way back in 1968, when Sir Garfield Sobers' bizarre declaration in Port of Spain gifted them the decisive eight-wicket victory.

Since then Mike Denness, Ian Botham, David Gower, Graham Gooch and Mike Atherton (twice) have all returned home empty-handed.

Gooch's team lost 2-1 in 1990, but only after Malcolm's 4-77 had opened the door to a sensational nine-wicket England win in Jamaica.

And they were poised to go 2-0 up in Trinidad after Big Dev's career-best match figures of 10-137, only for rain and blatant West Indian time-wasting to rob them on the final afternoon.

Luckily for Malcolm, he missed England's biggest clobbering on the coconut shy - Brian Lara's world-record 375 in Antigua nine years ago - through injury.

"Tell Brian he was very unlucky," said Malcolm. "If I had been bowling at him on that pitch, he would have got at least 500!"

MALCOLM'S ENGLAND LEGENDS XI

SPREAD over 19 years, Devon Malcolm's first class career included 40 England caps. Here, he picks his England 11 from the cast of stars with whom he shared the stage.

GRAHAM GOOCH: Led from the front, fantastic batsman. I wish I had played with him for more than the last five years of his England career.

MIKE ATHERTON: Took up where Gooch left off. Brave as a lion, terrific mental strength.

ROBIN SMITH: A genuine tough guy, one of the best in the world against pace bowling and he was prepared to wear a few bruises.

ALLAN LAMB: Another superb player of fast bowling and he had six Test centuries against the West Indies to prove it.

CHRIS TAVARE: Capable of sending you to sleep when he was blocking for England - but he gave me one of my biggest roastings in county cricket, where he was a real dasher.

ALEC STEWART: A great all-rounder to have in your squad when he kept wicket, but also a world class specialist batsman in his own right.

IAN BOTHAM: I only played a handful of games with him, but his record speaks for itself.

JACK RUSSELL: The best gloves man in the world and always a tenacious batsman when England were in trouble.

CHRIS LEWIS: Such a natural talent that people often expected him to deliver more. But he didn't expect praise when he performed well and didn't like the criticism if he didn't succeed.

ANGUS FRASER: I always felt we made a great double act. I was the explosive strike bowler, he winkled them out at the other end.

DARREN GOUGH: Great team man, he matured into a world class bowler and had a good record against Australia.

12th man: PHIL TUFNELL: When a spinner was required, he was our match winner. Difficult to manage his character, but that's why it takes all sorts to play cricket.

TOP OF THE CLASS BUT TREATED LIKE A NAUGHTY BOY

HARD as he tries to forget the humiliation, Devon Malcolm still cannot understand why he was treated like a naughty schoolboy by former England supremo Ray Illingworth.

Instead of unleashing Malcolm on South Africa like a nuclear deterrent eight years ago, Illy and his bowling coach Peter Lever seemed intent on bringing him down a peg.

First they tried to alter Malcolm's action on tour when such technical tinkering should have been addressed in the nets at home. Then with Illy's backing Lever gave a misguided briefing in which he slated Malcolm as "a nonentity in cricketing terms."

The stand-off led to an infamous bust-up in the dressing-room after England lost the deciding Test at Cape Town. Malcolm recalled: "No one has a God-given right to play for England but even now, several years later, I still have to try and blank it out of my mind because it was the worst time of my life. I don't know where the hatred and bitterness came from and I wasted one of my prime years as a fast bowler.

"To this day that episode still baffles me and makes me sad."

CAPTION(S):

DOUBLE ACT: Simon Jones; COME ON MI SON: Steve Harmison is tailor- made for the West Indies; GOOCH: Fantastic; UNHAPPY COUPLE: Malcolm and Ray Illingworth