Two of West Indies cricket’s modern-day giants were born on this day, 16 years apart.
In 1963, towering paceman Curtly Ambrose had his first sighting of the world on his birth in Swetes Village, Antigua. One of the greatest fast bowlers to have graced the game, Ambrose broke into the West Indian team in April 1988 when they were at the peak of their dominance, under Viv Richards. By the time he bid adieu with 405 Test wickets and 225 scalps in One-Day Internationals in September 2000, the West Indian downslide had already started.
Not necessarily the fastest, Ambrose’s remorseless accuracy and his ability to move the ball off the seam, not to mention his six-foot, seven-inch frame, singled him out as a tormentor of oppositions who made it a habit of getting wickets in a clutch, including a series-clinching burst of seven wickets for one run against Australia in Perth in 1992-93.
Where Ambrose terrorized batsmen with new ball and old, Chris Gayle has been decimating bowling attacks with his brazen, spectacular strokeplay. Born on this day in Kingston in 1979, the Universe Boss is one of only four men to have struck two triple-hundreds in Test cricket. As impressive as his Test records are, he has made a name for himself as a white-ball powerhouse, and with the advent of T20 cricket, has set grounds alight all over the world with his electric hitting.
Gayle has an astonishing 22 hundreds in 404 T20s, and with 978 sixes, easily averages more than two a game. As he turns 41, the left-hander has shown little signs of slowing down, and will eye a good run with Kings XI Punjab in Season 13 of the IPL in the UAE.
Much before Gayle and Ambrose, Learie Constantine, one of the true legends of the game, was born on this day in Diego Martin, Trinidad in 1902. Combining the hostility of Ambrose and the fierce hitting of Gayle, he was a spectacular presence who was knighted in 1962, and was posthumously awarded the Trinity Cross, his country’s highest honour.
