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RSSAmbrose: The Tycoon on the Pitch
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Curtly Ambrose is considered as one of the most successful West Indies bowler in the cricket history. Popularly nick named as ‘Little Bird”, Curtly Elconn Lynwall Ambrose was born on September 21, 1963 in Swetes Village in Antigua. This tall man of 6’7 feet was once the sharp point of the pace attack of Carribean side.
Ambrose played for the Leeward Islands, Chester Boughton Hall Cricket Club, Northamptonshire County Cricket Club between the period 1989-96, and the West Indian cricket team. His was as a right-arm fast
bowler, especially in partnership with Courtney Walsh. His huge 6′ 7″ (2.01 m) frame was was enough to evoke fear in the minds of the batsman. Even when his pace fell away due to age, he naver lost the charisma to allure the fans. He never failed in delivering within excellent line and length. Because of his height, he could extract steepling bounce from any pitch - a threat to even the finest of batsmen. Joining with Courtney Walsh, he formed one of the greatest opening bowling partnerships, as evidenced by the 421 wickets they shared in the 49 Test matches they played together.
Ambrose made his debut into Test cricket in April 1988 at Georgetown, Guyana against Pakistan. He wore West indies jersey for 98 Tests. He bowled 1001 maiden overs (roughly two in every seven), and eroded 405 wickets at a bowling average of 20.99. He is the fifth bowler to cross 400 wickts in Test cricket. This superb average is marginally bettered only by fellow West Indians Malcolm Marshall (20.94) and Garner (20.97) among bowlers who have taken more than 200 wickets. Apart from that Ambrose also has an elegant economy rate of any of the nine bowlers who have taken 400 or more Test wickets, at 2.31 per over. His best performance came out against England at Barbados in 1990, when he took 8-45. He took five wickets or better on 22 occasions, including 7 wickets for 1 run against Australia at the WACA in 1993. He retired from interantional cricket at the end of the England tour in August 2000.
