It took the all-powerful, all-conquering 1984 touring West Indies team to inspire me to take more notice of cricket. Botham’s Ashes were a touch early to attract my young attention, especially while distracted by my beloved Aston Villa’s first league title in 71 years.
But my fascination and admiration for cricket and specifically West Indies cricket strengthened through the 1980s and into the nineties. Even if results usually witnessed punishing series defeats for England.
Fast forward about 20 years; to a time when I was now an established journalist and author. I thought what a great book there must be in the mean machine fast bowler Curtly Ambrose. I was amazed to learn that despite all of his record-breaking feats and match-winning efforts, there was still not an autobiography from him. How I would love to be the author to help him write his much-anticipated memoirs!
There was one small problem with my concept: I didn’t know him. He was just a myth to me. A man infamous for saying very little in public and better remembered for a remarkable 12-year Test career that generated 405 Test wickets. I was, though, able to convey an emailed message to him via a mutual contact, Richie Richardson.  
 The response eventually came back that he would be interested in doing a book after more than decade away from cricket had allowed him to chill out sufficiently enough and now was the right time to ‘tell all’. Hence our subsequent book title: Curtly Ambrose – Time to Talk.
I explained to him by email that if I am to sell the idea of his book to a publisher I need to know what he has to say. We met first of all in a hotel bar in London as he was in England as a guest for the Lord’s Taverners.
Prior to our meeting I was quite apprehensive actually as all I had to go on was this myth of a man. The ‘Curtly Speaks to No Man’ line that followed him everywhere through his career. That reputation led me to think he would offer one-word answers and make this experience very difficult.
 His legacy with journalists / the media meant two things. One, journalists tended not to bother asking for an interview because they feared the inevitable rejection. And two, because of that silence, we the public never really got to know what he was like. Curtly Ambrose the man, not the bowler.
Thankfully, at our meet, I was pleasantly put at ease as we chatted over a glass of Coke (could have been Pepsi!). In fact that was another myth broken as I didn’t expect him to be a non-smoking teetotaller! He was very polite, very engaging and his answers to my quizzing were fascinating and it was clear he would be an excellent guy to work with. As it proved, when the subsequent publishing deal was agreed and we spent a few months working on the book.
Curtly was a coach at the Caribbean Premier League in 2014 when I conducted the interviews with him, in St Kitts. I have to admit that sometimes when he was pouring out his memories into my voice recorder I did occasionally switch off and say to myself, ‘Is this really happening? Curtly Ambrose is telling me about his life and career. Nah!’
I am pleased to report that from there, we became friends and now my agency manages him. That’s not a bad result, is it? I still feel privileged to be the one often driving him to events around England and reminiscing with him about his career. It’s not like we are short of things to talk about!
However, I will probably choose never to chastise him for ruining one evening in March, 1994. I had been watching the Trinidad Test on Sky Sports and felt chipper before taking a shower as Mike Atherton’s England needed just 194 to win. I returned from the bathroom to find England had been reduced to five for three, and eventually 46 all out (Ambrose six for 24).
Sometimes you just have to acknowledge greatness.
Memory added on February 1, 2021
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