Curtly AMBROSE

Curtly Ambrose could have been purpose-built to replace Joel Garner in the West Indies side: 6ft 7in and fast, making unplayable balls lift from a good length he swept through opposition Test sides as quickly as his regular colleagues, Walsh, Marshall and Patterson would allow. Ambrose made his Test debut against Pakistan in 1988 and toured England that year, taking 4-53 in his first Test. He always took plenty of wickets, but it is those times when he became an irresistible force that went down into the pages of cricket history. There was Barbados in 1989-90, when Jack Russell was saving the match and the series for England, but in the last minutes of the match Ambrose swept him and the rest of the batting aside with the new ball to end up with 8-45.

Then there were the South Africans in their first tour to the Caribbean in 1992, blown away by Walsh and Ambrose with just a few runs to get on the final day. Greatest of all, though, must have been Perth in 1992-93. After 5-66 in Brisbane and 6-74 and 4-46 on the batsman's paradise at Adelaide, Curtly made sure his side retained the Frank Worrell Trophy. He finished off the Australians with a spell of seven wickets for 1 run in 32 balls. Allan Border was out to the first ball and for ever after insisted that playing in Perth was as bad as playing overseas. A year later he did it to England again, in Trinidad, with 5-60 followed by 6-24. England were winning until that second performance, which saw them all out for 46. He played in the World Cup of 1992, when his best figures of 2-23 came against both India and Sri Lanka. From 1989 he played in the English county championship for Northamptonshire. (Bob Harragan)

Whenever Curtly Ambrose took a Test wicket his mother rushed onto the balcony of her home in Swetes Village, Antigua, to triumphantly ring a special bell - which must have been irritating for her neighbours when Curtly was playing on the other side of the world in what, to them, was the middle of the night. No doubt many of them would stay up to listen to the commentary, particularly when Ambrose became the fourth bowler to reach 400 Test wickets at Headingley in 2000. The victim, Mike Atherton, provided more of those wickets than anyone else, highlighting the regular duels between England's premier batsman and West Indies premier bowler. Against Australia in 1995 Curtly took 5-45 and 4-20 in Trinidad and 5-96 against England at the Oval later that year.

In Australia in 1996-7 there was 5-55 and 4-17 in Melbourne and 5-43 and 2-50 in Perth. He had hamstring trouble throughout that tour and by the middle 1990s most critics were ready to pension him off. Before England's visit to the Caribbean in 1998 it was even said he had sent his letter of retirement to the selectors and that made him change his usual media interview: "Curtly don't talk to no-one." to "Only Curtly decide when Curtly retire." He finally decided to call it a day after the 2000 tour (he is pictured above during the Lord's Test), when he was met by a guard of honour from the England team as he walked out for his last innings. In the World Cup of 1996 he was a semi-finalist. A keen amateur bass guitarist, Ambrose could often be seen playing air guitar along with the music found on most Caribbean Test grounds. (Bob Harragan)