Former West Indies pacer, Curtly Ambrose, is backing his once bowling partner, Courtney Walsh, to deliver as West Indies Women head coach.
With 95 Test together and 762 wickets between them from 1988 to 2000, Ambrose spoke highly of the other half of what was considered one of the greatest new-ball opening pair ever, during the Mason and Guest show earlier this week.
“When I learnt of his appointment I called him straight away to offer my congratulations and I am very, very happy for him,” Ambrose reflected whilst giving Walsh his stamp of approval.
He added, “I know he will do a good job, [he is] an experienced man. He’s played at the highest level and he has coached before as well so he knows cricket and that is the most important thing. He knows cricket, he knows how to be a winner and apart from the cricket and the skills itself, he knows how to manage players so all those qualities will work in his favour.”
Ambrose noted that coaches need to move away from trying to be “the most popular coach” and be able to call out players for their mistakes in a respectful manner.
“If they are doing something wrong they should be man enough as a coach to be able to tell them what they are doing wrong and they as players must learn to accept it…You got to call a spade a spade without being disrespectful and it’s for their benefit and I know Courtney is that kind of person,” he reckoned.
The 57-year-old Antiguan contended that from his past experiences with the women’s side, that there needs to be a revival of that passion in order to bring the 2016 World T20 champions back to glory.
When asked if he has concerns over their current form, Ambrose said yes.
“I had done a bit of work with them myself so just like Courtney I know them quite a bit and you know what I think the ladies need is a backroom staff that can poke their fire because you can’t be a great team two years ago and suddenly you not great anymore so you need a backroom staff who can poke their fire and get them to enjoy cricket again.”
