Happy Birthday Curtly Ambrose

Sir Curtly turns 52 today. In a decorated career such as Curtly's, it is difficult to choose his most dominating performance. Although his spell of 7 wickets for 1 run against Australia is legendary, it was his 8/45 performance against England at the Kensington Oval that still gives me (and many an English batsman) nightmares. He was simply unplayable.

The greatest of them all

Curtly,  as a birthday wish please help Gabriel to HOLD a SEAM 

all the best !

Two of my favourite Curtly stories were included in his recent autobiography, Time To Talk. The first involved the story regarding his mother, Hillie, who would run out of their house in Swetes Village and ring a bell in the street whenever Curtly would take a wicket. In his book, Curtly explained that she would stay awake all night listening to her transistor as she preferred to listen to the matches as opposed to watch them. I am surprised she didn't break that bell the day that Curtly demolished England in Bridgetown.

The other story showed the intensity that made him such a feared bowler. While playing for Northants in 1990, Curtly bowled successive beamers to Dermot Reeve after he went down on one knee and swept him over square leg for six. Curtly was having none of that and a full scale brawl nearly erupted. Play resumed and Curtly sent down a third beamer the next over, just to get his message across.

Ambrose was so amazing. Australia basically overtook the WI the moment Ambrose got old and Mcgrath got onto the Aussie team. Both had the ability to win games almost single-handedly.