Curtly Ambrose: He will be sorely missed!!

At the end of that incredible Test match between Pakistan and the West Indies in Antigua last month, won, somehow, by the West Indies, I managed this interview with Curtly Ambrose.

Colin Croft (CC): This might just be the last Test match that you would have played in the Caribbean and especially at the Antigua Recreation Ground. Tell me how you enjoyed this win and also tell me how you feel emotionally and professionally about your future in cricket.

Curtly Ambrose (CA): At the end of the day, it was a very good result for us. I think we worked really hard throughout the entire season and to come out victorious like this was very refreshing. I enjoyed this game in Antigua very much, but it is my last game here in Antigua. I have decided that after the English tour, I will pack it in and call it a day. I have already notified the West Indies Cricket Board, but you are the first person from the press that I have told this to. So, the English tour will be my last.

CC: Do you think that the younger boys, the new generation of fast bowlers can really take over now? They have really big boots to fill, replacing both you and Courtney Walsh, with over 800 Test wickets. That is a lot of cricket!!

CA: I am sure that in time, they will learn. When the younger fast bowlers realize that I am not around anymore, maybe that is what they need, really, to get their acts together. They are improving, they are bowling well, and I am sure that in the future, they will do much better.

CC: Any regrets now that you have decided to call it a day, any particular regrets at all?

CA: None at all. I have been in this business for about twelve and a half years. You know, I think that a man should know his limitations. I think that it is time for me to quit. I have served the West Indies well, I think, over the years, and I have thought about it long and hard and I simply came to the conclusion that it is time for me to leave.

CC: Would you want the West Indies Cricket Board to make you a part of their set up, to use your considerable cricketing skills, to help the youths, now that you will not be playing?

CA: Well, that is all up to the West Indies Cricket Board. I know that I have learned a lot over these last twelve or so years, and I figure that it is always nice to be able to put back a little of what I will have learned. If that opportunity arrives, I will certainly take it.

CC: So, now you are going off into the sunset, so to speak, having achieved everything that you wanted to.

CA: Well, just about, except maybe that I feel a bit sad that I have never been in a West Indies cricket team which won the World Cup and it has always been one of my dreams to win the World Cup. I have never managed that, but I still give thanks to the good Lord for a wonderful career. The good far outweigh the bad in my cricketing career, so I am pleased with my overall efforts.

CC: So, final tour for you, against England. You have got to go out with a bang. At least for two-three months, you must be there, firing!

CA: Well, I hope so. I have always done well against them over the years and I hope that I can continue in the same vein, carry on the form of the tours of Zimbabwe and Pakistan, and help the West Indies beat England again.

CC: Curtly Ambrose, thanks very much for the effort over the years. It was tremendous. Good luck in England and with everything you will do afterwards.

CA: Thanks very much, man. I really appreciate that, coming from you. I am a big boy and I know that I will survive. I might miss cricket a bit, though. Thank you.

That announcement, made by the man himself, that he would be retiring from international cricket after the West Indies cricket tour of the United Kingdom, was not altogether a surprise to anyone. Frankly, even if Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh get fifty (50) wickets between them in the five Test series against England, they still should not be selected for Australia at the end of the year, since that would be putting off the inevitable, and Australia, with its hard wickets, and tough run-ups, would be much too much for these guys, as tremendously diligent as they always are.

Yet, when "Amby" gave me that "scoop", it was still a bit of a shock and rather sad too. Perhaps he should have announced it before the game started, so that he could get the proper sendoff, probably tearful, that he deserved. He does not deserve to just fade away into the sunset. He deserves much, much more than that.

The little village of Sweetes has never produced a better West Indian citizen, the present West Indies wicket-keeper Ridley Jacobs notwithstanding. Curtly had been tremendous for the West Indies since his advent to cricket in 1988, against, yes, you guessed it, Pakistan, at Georgetown, Guyana. To end against Pakistan, at least in the West Indies, is just that much ironic. To have your very last game against England, though, is very fitting indeed, perhaps even pleasing to the big Antiguan. England must watch out for a final deadly salvo.

Getting wickets is tremendous fun for a bowler, especially a fast bowler, since so much work is put into the thing to get there in the first place. Believe me, I know. Well, Curtly has 388 of them from 93 Tests appearances, second only, in West Indian cricket, another irony, I think, to his great fast bowling partner, Courtney Walsh, who has 449, but has been playing since 1983, and has 117 Test appearances now.

It is almost a foregone conclusion that Curtly will get the required twelve (12) wickets for his 400th wicket in Test cricket, against England. He must, or he will never get it. It is that simple. If he can get eleven (11) wickets at that miserly 19.91 runs per wicket average against Pakistan, in three Tests, on those somewhat lifeless pitches in the Caribbean, then he should elongate that a bit for five Tests on the lush green English pitches. (Do they, the ground curators, dare do that, and allow the pitches to be lively??).

Not even Australia could agitate Amby more than England. I sometimes wonder which is his most determined and destructive effort. Would it have been that 8-45 against England in Barbados in April 1990, or could it have been the 6-24 at Port of Spain when England needed 194 to win with nearly two days to bat. Ambrose decimated the English batting on the penultimate evening for 46, a spell that could still be giving nightmares to those English players still in the team. Both were memorable, and victorious, so you can take your pick.

Fast bowlers, originally, came in pairs, with names like Dennis Lillee and Jeffrey Thompson, or Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller of Australia going nicely off the tongue, or Freddy Truman and Brian Statham, and Ken Higgs and John Snow of England, or even Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith of the West Indies.

Until the advent of Jeff Thompson, Dennis Lillee, Gary Gilmour and Max Walker (no, the West Indies, with Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Joel Garner and Colin Croft, were NOT the 1st fourpronged pace attack, though it could be argued that we were either the best, or the worse, depending on your perspective), no-one expected four fast bowlers to be selected regularly for a Test match. Well, even with four involved regularly these days, Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose will stand out forever, since in all memory, they have been a pair, identified in four.

Sadly, one of their regular partners, Malcolm Marshall, who managed only that 376 wickets in 81 Tests (only??), died recently, but, what a force they were, especially when playing together against England. Of course, with all of the faster bowlers considered by the West Indies for their team since 1928, many would want to know who was the best, or which combination was the best.

In a recent article, for the new millenium, I suggested that, after considerable sweat and tears, and thought too, the four best West Indian fast bowlers, (MY four, not necessarily yours), if picking an All-West-Indies-Cricket-Team, would have been Wes Hall, Michael Holding, Joel Garner and either Malcolm Marshall, Andy Roberts, Curtly Ambrose or Courtney Walsh. The selection of the fourth fast bowler depended on what exactly was needed, another attacking bowler, or one who could just bowl forever in a game.

Yet, if someone strung me up for not selecting either Courtney Walsh or Curtly Ambrose in the first three, even I would decide that the person would be justified. Making a selection like that is almost impossible. Over and over again, Curtly Ambrose and his partner, Courtney Walsh, have proved that they are extremely special. Like "cookhoo and flying fish", that great Barbadian dish, they go together, forever.

The one thing that is special about Curtly is his "meanness". That does not suggest rudeness or being uncouth. I mean "mean" with the ball. He seldom gives the batsmen any room to maneuver, and normally, would move from having, say 0-35 from about 20 overs to having 4-40 in 24 overs, if you see what I mean. Curtly Ambrose makes every run count. He makes every delivery useful.

As he puts it himself:

"Crofty boy, the batsmen should not get any free runs. (I agree). They should have to work just as hard as I have to get a wicket. (I agree). I try to keep my figures tight, so that when I do get a break-through, then the figures are always tighter, and my team benefits. (I could not have said it better myself.)".

Correctly, Curtly is mean that way!!

Strange for most, but not for me, Curtly Ambrose normally gives the best interviews, now that I am something of a Sports Journalist. He is highly agitated when it comes to West Indies cricket, and all one has to do is give him the respect he deserves, and rightfully, demands. He is articulate and always honest. His ideas would fill a dictionary of cricket. The guy knows his stuff.

I, for one, will miss him terribly, as he has brought a certain dignity and pride to his trade, a certain toughness to his game, and always, but always, a certain fairness to this great sport. Curtly Ambrose is easily one of the best ever, his production and contributions for the West Indies cricket team are great.

Curtly will have that final hoorah, that final fling, but, I predict, having a substantial hand in the West Indies winning this series by the convincing 3-1; remember that you heard it from me here first; despite the early less than impressive showing. As usual, "Amby", "Cuddy" and the rest will be the saviors of the West Indies.

When, not if, he gets those needed twelve wickets, his will become greater still, since he will be only the 2nd West Indian, after Courtney Walsh, and the 4th person overall, in all of international cricket, after (Sir) Richard Hadlee of New Zealand, Kapil Dev of Indian and of course, Courtney "Cuddy" Walsh, to make it there. With Wasim Akram of Pakistan also just short of the 400 mark, what a combination THAT five, with each having at least 400 Test wickets, would be. Batsmen everywhere would be quivering. Yet, most of them would also have great admiration for them all, Curtly Ambrose included.