Towering West Indies quick, 405 Test wickets, and the last of a fearsome line
CricketAt six feet seven, with a silent menace and a strike rate that frightened a generation of batsmen, Sir Curtly Ambrose was the closing act in West Indies' great era of fast bowling.
Between 1988 and 2000 he took 405 Test wickets, one of only a handful of pacemen to pass 400 at the time. He formed the most feared new-ball partnership in the world with Courtney Walsh, and his spells against England, Australia and South Africa remain the stuff of highlights reels. The 7 for 1 in Perth in 1993 and the 8 for 45 at Bridgetown in 1990 are still spoken about in awed tones.
What set Ambrose apart was not pace alone, though he had plenty of it. It was the relentless accuracy, the bounce extracted from a length no one else could find, and the silence. He famously refused almost all media requests during his career, letting the ball speak. When he finally opened up after retirement, the stories were worth the wait.
These days he is as likely to be found on stage with a bass guitar as a microphone at a ground. His reggae band, Big Bad Dread and the Baldhead, tours the Caribbean, and he offers cricket punditry in measured, thoughtful bursts. Knighted by Antigua and Barbuda in 2014, he remains one of the sport's great gentlemen.
An evening with Sir Curtly is a rare and special thing, a chance to hear the inside story of a Caribbean golden age from the man who anchored it.
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