The deadly fast-bowler from West Indies, Curtly Ambrose remembered the glory days of the West Indies cricket and asserted that the modern-day youngsters "don't quite understand" what cricket means to West Indies. He was speaking for an interview with Talk Sports Live.
The West Indies dominated world cricket from the 70s to the early 90s. It started with Vivian Richards and Clive Lloyd's team that won the first two Cricket World Cups held in 1975 and 1979. Later, the fast-bowling generation of West Indies spearheaded by Curtley Ambrose came along. Ambrose, in the interview, talks about the very same generation.
Ambrose says that the current West Indies cricketers do not know the importance of the old team. He said, “Most of the youngsters we have now probably don’t quite understand what cricket means to West Indians in the West Indies and abroad because cricket is the only sport that really unites Caribbean people.
"It’s going to be difficult to find another Viv Richards or a Haynes and Greenidge, a Brian Lara, Richie Richardson, you know, a Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, and the list goes on and on, Clive Lloyd. It’s going to be extremely difficult to find those quality players again," said Ambrose.
He also said, "This is no disrespect to the players we have now because we have a couple of guys who have some quality in them and can become great, but what we have to understand is that I don’t think we will ever see those great, exceptional glory days again.”
"When we were the best team in the world, West Indians all over the globe could walk and boast about how good we were because we were the best, so it’s going to be difficult to see those glory days again. Yes, we can be competitive and climb up the ICC rankings and be a force to be reckoned with again, but those glory days, I don’t think we will see them again," Ambrose concluded.