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Curtly Elconn Lynwall Ambrose (b. September 21, 1963), nicknamed the 'Little Bird' following on from Joel Garner who was nicknamed "Big Bird" owing to his height, was a famous West Indian cricketer.
Born in Swetes Village, Antigua he played for the Leeward Islands, Chester Boughton Hall Cricket Club, Northamptonshire County Cricket Club (1989-96), and the West Indian cricket team. His skill was as a right-arm fast bowler, especially in partnership with Courtney Walsh. His huge 6' 7" (2.01 m) frame was a fearsome sight for any batsman; even when his pace fell away due to age, he still bowled excellent line and length and, due to his height, he could extract steepling bounce from any pitch - a threat to even the finest of batsmen. With Courtney Walsh, he formed one of the greatest opening bowling partnerships, as evidenced by the 421 wickets they shared in the 49 Test matches they played together.
Ambrose made his Test debut in April 1988 at Georgetown, Guyana against Pakistan and retired at the end of the England tour in August 2000.
A graph showing Ambrose's test career bowling statistics and how they have varied over time.
In Test cricket, he had 98 caps, bowled 1001 maiden overs (roughly two in every seven), and took 405 wickets (the fifth bowler to exceed the 400 wicket barrier) at a bowling average of 20.99. This superb average is marginally bettered only by fellow West Indians Malcolm Marshall (20.94) and Garner (20.97). In addition, Ambrose also boasts the best economy rate of any of the nine bowlers who have taken 400 or more Test wickets, at 2.31 per over. His best performance was 8 for 45 against England at Barbados in 1990 (in 34 Tests against England he took 164 wickets, dismissing Mike Atherton 17 times); he took five wickets or better on 22 occasions, including 7 wickets for 1 run against Australia at the WACA in 1992. He bowled 15-ball over at the WACA ground in Perth containing 9 no-balls which took 12 minutes to bowl, possibly the longest over in Test cricket. In 176 One Day Internationals, he took 225 wickets. Despite certain pretensions as a left-handed batsman and a single Test fifty to his credit (53 against Australia in 1991), he did not distinguish himself with the bat.
Ambrose didn't say much, refusing countless interview requests with the motto "Curtly don't talk to no man." [2].
Having retired from cricket, Ambrose plays guitar in a reggae band called Big Bad Dread and the Baldhead alongside former team-mate Richie Richardson [3].
He was placed at No.3 in Shane Warne's list of 50 Greatest Cricketers [4].
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Bowlers who have taken 400 Test wickets |
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West Indies
