Legendary fast bowlers produced by Windies

#2 Curtly Ambrose

Sir Curtly Ambrose

He seldom spoke and instead let his bowling do all the talking. And boy, did his overs talk or what! Preferring basketball in his youth, Sir Curtly Elconn Lynwall Ambrose ventured into cricket only at the behest and insistence of his mother.

Extremely tall, like Joel Garner, the man he replaced when the Big Bird retired in 1988, the 6 foot 7 giant relied on accuracy and conceding few runs whilst generating unpleasant bounce from the good length area. He had a knack of devastating the opposition by picking up several wickets in quick succession.

His best bowling figures of 8 for 45 came at the Kensington Oval, Barbados against England, who were playing for a draw and had 5 wickets in hand with one session to play. Ambrose persuaded captain Sir Vivian Richards to take the new ball and cleaned the innings up in 7 overs. However, his finest spell in a Test came at his favourite venue, the WACA, when he picked up 7 Aussie wickets in just 5.2 overs (32 balls) conceding just 1 run and led his team to an innings victory. In 1994, having picked up 5 wickets in the first innings, Ambrose proceeded to bowl England out for a paltry 46 as he finished up with 6 for 24 leading the Windies to victory.

Ambrose formed a formidable opening partnership with Courtney Walsh. In 52 Tests that the duo played together, Ambrose and Walsh took a staggering 412 wickets at an average of 22.

In 98 Tests, Sir Curtly picked up 405 wickets at an average of 21 and a strike rate of 55. In 176 ODIs, he picked up 225 wickets at an average of 24 and a strike rate of 42. His best ODI performance of 5 for 17 came at the MCG against the Aussies in 1988.

Ambrose was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Nation (KCN) by the Antiguan Barbudan Government on 28 February 2014. Presently, Ambrose is a bass guitarist for the Reggae band Big Bad Dread and the Baldhead.