Curtly Ambrose

Curtly Ambrose

Personal information
Full name	Curtly Elconn Lynwall Ambrose
Born	21 September 1963 (1963-09-21) (age 46) Swetes, Antigua and Barbuda
Height	6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)
Batting style	Left-handed batsman
Bowling style	Right-arm fast
Role	Bowler
International information
National side	West Indies
Test debut (cap 192)	2 April 1988 v Pakistan
Last Test	31 August 2000 v England
ODI debut (cap 53)	12 March 1988 v Pakistan
Last ODI	23 April 2000 v Pakistan
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1985–2000	Leeward Islands
1998–1999	Antigua and Barbuda
1989–1996	Northamptonshire
Career statistics
Competition	Tests	ODIs	FC	List A
Matches	98	176	239	329
Runs scored	1439	639	3448	1282
Batting average	12.40	10.65	13.95	11.98
100s/50s	0/1	0/0	0/4	0/0
Top score	53	31*	78	48
Balls bowled	22103	9353	48798	17143
Wickets	405	225	941	401
Bowling average	20.99	24.12	20.24	23.83
5 wickets in innings	22	4	50	4
10 wickets in match	3	n/a	8	n/a
Best bowling	8/45	5/17	8/45	5/17
Catches/stumpings	18/0	45/0	88/0	82/0
Source: [4], September 1 2007

Curtly Elconn Lynwall Ambrose (born September 21, 1963) is a former West Indian cricketer. His skill was as a right-arm fast bowler, especially in partnership with Courtney Walsh. His huge 6'7" (2.01 m) frame was a fearsome sight for any batsman; even when his pace fell away due to age, he still bowled excellent line and length and, due to his height, could extract steepling bounce from any pitch — a threat to even the finest of batsmen. With Walsh, he formed one of the greatest opening bowling partnerships in history, as evidenced by the 421 wickets they shared in the 49 Test matches they played together.

Born in Swetes, Antigua he played for the Leeward Islands, Northamptonshire County Cricket Club, and the West Indian cricket team. Ambrose made his Test debut in April 1988 at Georgetown, Guyana against Pakistan and retired at the end of the England tour in August 2000.

A graph showing Ambrose's test career bowling statistics and how they have varied over time.

In Test cricket, he had 98 caps, bowled 1,001 maiden overs (roughly two in every seven) and took 405 wickets (making him only the fifth to exceed the 400 barrier) at an average of 20.99. This superb average is marginally bettered only by fellow West Indians Malcolm Marshall (20.94) and Joel Garner (20.97) among bowlers who have taken more than 200 wickets. In addition, Ambrose also boasts the best economy rate of any of the nine bowlers who have taken 400 or more Test wickets, at 2.31 per over. His best performance was eight for 45 against England at Barbados in 1990 (in 34 Tests against England he took 164 wickets, dismissing Mike Atherton seventeen times); he took five wickets or better on 22 occasions, including seven wickets for one run against Australia at the WACA, in Perth, in 1993. He also bowled an infamous fifteen-ball over at the same ground: it contained nine no-balls and took twelve minutes to bowl, making it possibly the longest over in Test cricket. He overstepped the crease by a considerable margin and it was regarded that he deliberately did so to come closer to the batsmen to intimidate them.

In 176 one-day internationals, Ambrose took 225 wickets. Despite certain pretensions as a left-handed batsman, and a single Test fifty to his credit (53 against Australia in 1991), he did not distinguish himself with the bat.

Ambrose was a man of few words, refusing countless interview requests with the motto "Curtly talk to no man."^[1]

Legacy and life after cricket

Having retired from cricket, Ambrose now plays guitar in a reggae band called Big Bad Dread and the Baldhead alongside former team-mate Richie Richardson.^[2]

He was recently placed at No. 3 in Shane Warne's list of the fifty greatest cricketers of his time,^[3] while Ian Botham in his book Botham's Century noted that, although "a cricketer who thrived on aggression and menace", Ambrose was "the most reluctant and detached of heroes", indeed "one of the quietest that I ever encountered". As a bowler, he was always "miserly accurate" but occasionally, when fired up, "as unforgiving and as devastating as a hurricane", and "virtually unplayable":

But maybe of all these weapons, the most potent was his silence.

Many fast bowlers have tried to put batsmen off their strokes by utilising various forms of verbal and physical intimidation. Curtley intimidated you with hush.^[4]

References

• Botham, Ian and Peter Hayter. Botham's Century: My 100 Great Cricketing Characters. CollinsWillow, 2001.

Notes

External links

• Player Profile: Curtly Ambrose from Cricinfo

v • d • e Bowlers who have taken 400 Test wickets  Muttiah Muralitharan •  Shane Warne •  Anil Kumble •  Glenn McGrath •  Courtney Walsh •  Kapil Dev •  Richard Hadlee •  Shaun Pollock •  Wasim Akram •  Curtly Ambrose

v • d • e West Indies squad – 1992 Cricket World Cup 1 Richardson (c) • 2 Ambrose • 3 Arthurton • 4 Benjamin • 5 Cummins • 6 Harper • 7 Haynes • 8 Hooper • 9 Lara • 10 Logie • 11 Marshall • 12 Patterson • 13 Simmons • 14 Williams (wk)

v • d • e West Indies squad – 1996 Cricket World Cup (Semi Finals) 1 Richardson (c) • 2 Adams • 3 Ambrose • 4 Arthurton • 5 Bishop • 6 Browne (wk) • 7 Campbell • 8 Chanderpaul • 9 Cuffy • 10 Gibson • 11 Harper • 12 Holder • 13 Lara • 14 Walsh

v • d • e West Indies squad – 1999 Cricket World Cup 1 Lara (c) • 2 Chanderpaul • 3 Powell • 4 Campbell • 5 Williams • 6 Bryan • 7 Jacobs (wk) • 8 Simmons • 9 Ambrose • 10 Walsh • 11 Adams • 12 Arthurton • 13 Dillon • 14 Perry • 15 King Hooper was named in the original squad, but was replaced by Powell following his retirement