By Neto Baptiste
Fast bowling legend, Sir Curtly Ambrose, has pointed to his performance during a depleted West Indies team’s tour to Australia in 1993 as his crowning moment in international cricket.
Speaking on the day that marked 36 years since his Test debut against Pakistan in Guyana on April 2, 1988, the Antiguan cricketer said very few people gave the relatively inexperienced squad any chance of success against the much stronger and more experienced Australian team.
“We lost Sir Viv, Dujon, Marshall, Gordon Greenidge in 1991, so we [had] lost four of our top cricketers. Sir Richie became captain with a basically young squad going to Australia [in 1993] and only had one Test match to his name as captain and it was that one-off Test match to South Africa. Brian Lara had two Test matches to his name and Jimmy Adams, none so half of the team were rookies really and no one gave us a chance to beat a powerful Australian team led by the great Allan Border,” he said.
In a winner takes all final Test in the five-match series, Sir Curtly claimed seven for one off 32 deliveries to inspire West Indies to an innings victory and help his team retain the Frank Worrell Trophy.
However, Sir Curtly, who claimed 405 wickets in 98 Tests, said he was upset by the treatment of the team by WICB officials prior to the tour, and moreso that no one turned out to see the team off following a camp in Barbados.
“It simply means everybody just figured we were going to get murdered in Australia. However, we went and we won the Test series, we won the triangular one day competition, and then we went to South Africa and we won that triangular One Day series as well,” he said.
“Coming back from South Africa, we were supposed to have travelled to our different territories from England, but all of a sudden the West Indies Cricket Board decided they wanted the whole team to come to Barbados. So, you know me done vex lang time because they didn’t even tell me good luck when we were leaving Barbados, and all of a sudden we are coming back champions; but I had no choice.
“We went to Barbados and they had this big dinner and they were calling up all of the players on the stage and I showed my frustration and my disgust and, the late Tony Cozier wrote that I was ill-disciplined and all of that, but I didn’t care,” Sir Curtly added.
Looking back at his debut match against Pakistan, the Antiguan said it was a ‘rude awakening’ after having gone for 108 in 28 overs for two wickets.
“Sir Viv didn’t play that game; he was sick so Gordon Greenidge was the captain for that game and when I got to 99 he said to me, ‘you’re on 99, you know’, but as a rookie I just wanted to bowl and after that game I said to myself, ‘there is no way I would ever go for 100 again in Test match cricket unless I bowl 40 or more overs and during that I would have to take at least five wickets or something’,” he said.
Sir Curtly also claimed 225 wickets in 176 One Day International (ODI) matches and an impressive 941 wickets in 239 First Class matches.
