Walsh and me were too good, says Curtly Ambrose

An encounter with pace great Curtly Ambrose, who believes his pairing with Jamaican courtney Walsh was probably 'the' best pair in the history of West Indies cricket

Walsh and me were too good, says Curtly Ambrose

An encounter with pace great Curtly Ambrose, who believes his pairing with Jamaican Courtney Walsh was probably 'the' best pair in the history of West Indies cricket

"Not long ago, we had four to five fast bowlers. That was more than a pair but my pairing with Courtney has been probably the best pair in the history of West Indies cricket. It was one of the best pairs to have played this game," he said.

In his nature...
Ambrose said his success on the pitch was due to his aggressive nature. "Fast bowlers should be aggressive. I have been one of those fast bowlers who thrived on aggression. It is a part of my game. By nature I am an aggressive person. I do things aggressively, but I don't believe in sledging or talking to batsmen to throw them off their game. I believe if you are good enough in what you do, you should be able to let the ball do talking for you or the bat if you are a batsman. In my case I ordered the ball to do the talking for me. I would stare at you, give you this mean look, it is part of my game. I don't say nothing and let the ball do talking for me," he said.

Thriving on pace
The Antiguan laments the lack of aggression from the current crop of West Indies cricketer. "Up to mid 90s, we thrived on fast bowling. We used to have some good wickets here ufffd quick and tailor- made for our fast bowlers. That was our weapon. If you can't bowl out a team twice, you are not going to win too many
matches. Sadly enough from mid 90s onwards wickets in Caribbean got really slow. It is very frustrating for a fast bowler.

"The wickets have got worse over the years. Until we start seeing some good wickets which assist fast bowlers, I am not sure if we will see great fast bowlers in future," he said.u00a0 Asked about his memorable spell, Ambrose said: "I have fond memories of the past. There was the one-off Test match against South Africa in Barbados in 1992. They had just come back in international cricket. South Africa needed 79 runs with eight wickets in hand on the last day. They thought they would win quite easily but Walsh and myself had other ideas and they lost all eight wickets for just 28 runs in the morning and we won the game.

"Another instance, in Trinidad where we bowled out England for 46 runs. Walsh and me did all the bowling in that particular innings."

Sort it out with Gayle
Ambrose feels problems between destructive batsman Chris Gayle and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) should be sorted out immediately for the benefit of Caribbean cricket.

"I have heard there are some problems between him and the WICB. I don't know the details and I don't want to elaborate on that. But they need to sit down and sort out the matter because Gayle will make a difference in this team," said Ambrose, who struck a musical chord with former captain Richie Richardson by forming a band "Spirited". Playing his bass guitar at a casino in the capital city along withu00a0 Richardson, Ambrose prefers to stay away from cricket.

The towering Ambrose, who always turned down interview requests saying, "Curtly talk to no maan" is now a gentle giant.

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