Curtly Ambrose

Sir Curtly Elconn Lynwall Ambrose was born on 21 September 1963 in Swetes, a village in Antigua. He came to cricket late, having preferred basketball as a youth, but quickly made an impression as a fast bowler. Standing 6 feet 7 inches tall, he could make the ball bounce unusually high, and with his pace and accuracy this made him very hard to face. Progressing through regional teams, he was chosen for the West Indies in 1988, and made his Test debut on 12 March that year.

Over 98 Tests between 1988 and 2000 Ambrose took 405 wickets at an average of 20.99, with an economy rate of only 2.30 runs an over, and 225 wickets in one-day internationals. At his peak he topped the ICC rankings as the best bowler in the world, a position he held through 1992 and 1993, and he was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1992.

His most famous spell came in the first Test of the 1992–93 series against Australia in Perth, when he took 7 wickets for 1 run, one of the most devastating spells in Test history. In 1994 he was largely responsible for bowling England out for 46, taking 6 for 24 at Port of Spain.

He formed one of cricket's great opening partnerships with the Jamaican Courtney Walsh. Together they shared 421 Test wickets in 49 matches, and in the final years of his career, when the West Indies team was in decline, the two often carried the attack with little support. A man of few words, Ambrose was famously reluctant to speak to journalists, letting his bowling do the talking.

Ambrose was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2011 and selected as one of the West Indies all-time XI by a panel of experts. In 2014 he was knighted by Antigua and Barbuda, receiving the Knight Commander of the Order of the Nation, and after retiring he worked as a coach.