Curtly Ambrose

Sir Curtly Elconn Lynwall Ambrose KCN (born 21 September 1963) is an Antiguan former cricketer who played 98 Test matches for the West Indies.

Widely acknowledged as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time, he took 405 Test wickets at an average of 20.99 and topped the ICC Player Rankings for much of his career to be rated the best bowler in the world.

His great height—he is 6 ft tall—allowed him to make the ball bounce unusually high after he delivered it; allied to his pace and accuracy, it made him a very difficult bowler for batsmen to face.

A man of few words during his career, he was notoriously reluctant to speak to journalists.

Ambrose was born in Swetes, Antigua on 21 September 1963, the fourth of seven children.

His father was a carpenter from a village.

The family had no background in cricket, but his mother was a fan, and Ambrose played in his youth, primarily as a batsman.

At school, he performed well academically, particularly in mathematics and French, and became an apprentice carpenter upon leaving at the age of 17.

He briefly considered emigrating to America.

At the time, his favourite sport was basketball, although he occasionally umpired cricket matches.

Ambrose was not particularly tall until he reached his late teens, when he grew several inches to reach a height of 6 ft. Around this time, his mother encouraged him to become more involved in cricket.

Success as a fast bowler in a softball cricket match persuaded Ambrose to play in some club matches at the age of 20.

He quickly attracted the attention of coaches and progressed to the St John's cricket team.

Selected in the Leeward Islands competition, he took seven for 67 (seven wickets for 67 runs) for Antigua against St Kitts.

He made his first-class debut for the Leeward Islands in 1985–86 and took four wickets in the game, but failed to retain his place the following year.

A Viv Richards scholarship provided funding for him to play club cricket in England for Chester Boughton Hall Cricket Club in the highly rated Liverpool Competition during 1986 where he took 84 wickets at an average of 9.80.

The following year, he returned to England to play for Heywood Cricket Club in the Central Lancashire League, for whom he took 115 wickets in the season; these experiences helped to improve his bowling technique.

Upon his return to Antigua, Ambrose practised intensely, regained his place in the Leeward Islands team and, in the absence of leading bowlers Winston Benjamin and Eldine Baptiste with the West Indies team, became the main attacking bowler in the side.

He was no-balled for throwing in the first match, which Wisden Cricketers' Almanack later attributed to confusion caused by his attribute of flicking his wrist prior to releasing the ball to impart extra pace, and there were no subsequent doubts about the legality of his bowling action.

Retaining his place when the international bowlers returned, he took 35 wickets—including 12 in a match against Guyana, of which nine were bowled—in five matches in the competition.

Wisden's report on the West Indian season said his performance was "dominant", although few had heard of him previously.

Identifying his yorker as his most effective delivery, it noted that he "never lost his pace, his accuracy, or his thirst for wickets".

Progressing through regional and national teams, he was first chosen for the West Indies in 1988.

When Pakistan toured the West Indies in 1988, Ambrose played in the One Day International (ODI) series, taking the place of the recently retired Joel Garner.

He made his debut during the first match, on 12 March 1988 in Kingston, Jamaica, taking wickets with his third and ninth deliveries; he ended the innings with four for 39 from 10 overs.

In the second match, he took four for 35 and followed with another two wickets in the third.

West Indies won those first three matches to take the series, and Ambrose did not play in the fourth or fifth game.

He was chosen as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1992; after he retired he was entered into the International Cricket Council Hall of Fame and selected as one of West Indies all-time XI by a panel of experts.

Born in Swetes, Antigua, Ambrose came to cricket at a relatively late age, having preferred basketball in his youth, but quickly made an impression as a fast bowler.

Against Australia in 1993, he bowled one of the greatest bowling spells of all time, when he took seven wickets while conceding a single run, hence taking figures of 7/1 for the first spell of the match.

Similarly, in 1994 he was largely responsible for bowling England out for 46 runs, taking six wickets for 24 runs.

He is regarded as one of the greatest match-winning bowlers of all time.

Ambrose's bowling method relied on accuracy and conceding few runs; several of his best performances came when he took wickets in quick succession to devastate the opposition.

He was particularly successful against leading batsmen.

From 1995, Ambrose was increasingly affected by injury, and several times critics claimed that he was no longer effective.

However, he continued to take wickets regularly up until his retirement, although he was sometimes less effective in the early matches of a series.

In his final years, the West Indies team was in decline and often relied heavily on Ambrose and Walsh; both men often bowled with little support from the other bowlers.

Following his retirement, Ambrose has pursued a career in music as the bass guitarist in a reggae band.

He was almost immediately successful and remained in the team until his retirement in 2000.

On many occasions, his bowling spells were responsible for winning matches for West Indies which seemed lost, in association with Courtney Walsh.