Editing Curtly Ambrose (section)

===Team in decline===
Following Australia's victory in 1994–95, when West Indies toured Australia in 1996–97 the series was heavily publicised as a re-match. However, the visiting team were often ineffective, continuing a trend of decline, and depended heavily on their senior players, one of whom was Ambrose. He began the series poorly, continuing a pattern established in several preceding series, and critics suggested that he was no longer effective.<ref name =B63>Baum, p. 1,063–64.</ref> After taking only three wickets in the first two Tests, both of which were lost by West Indies,<ref name=figures/> Ambrose told his team-mates that he would take ten wickets in the third. On a difficult pitch for batting, he managed to take nine in the match, including three in the first hour of the game, despite struggling with a hamstring injury. West Indies won, and Ambrose was named man of the match,<ref>Baum, p. 1,072.</ref> but he missed the fourth Test with an injury. Writing in ''Wisden'', Greg Baum suggested that Ambrose absence possibly affected the outcome of the series; Australia won easily to ensure they won the series.<ref name=B63/> Ambrose returned for the final match, and on another difficult batting pitch, took five for 43 on the first day. West Indies won and Ambrose was again man of the match.<ref>Baum, p. 1,075.</ref> He led the West Indies bowling averages with 19 wickets at 23.36,<ref>Baum, p. 1,066.</ref> but had been the driving factor in West Indies' two wins.<ref name=B63/> Ambrose also played in an ODI tournament during the tour of Australia, taking nine wickets at 27.33.<ref name=ODI/> Later in the season, between March and May 1997, India toured West Indies; Ambrose took ten wickets at 30.10 in the Test series, including five for 87 in the second Test, but was no longer the home team's most effective bowler.<ref name=figures/><ref>Cozier (1998), pp. 1,111–12.</ref> Then in June, [[Sri Lanka national cricket team|Sri Lanka]] played a two-Test series, won 1–0 by West Indies. In the first, Ambrose took five for 37 in the first innings, and eight wickets in the game, to be named man of the match. This included his 300th wicket in Test matches; he was the 12th bowler, and fourth West Indian, to reach this landmark.<ref>Cozier, pp. 1,131–32.</ref> Ambrose also played five ODIs during the West Indies home season, taking nine wickets.<ref name=ODI/>

West Indies' loss of form continued in late 1997 when they lost every international match during their tour of Pakistan.<ref name=Pak97>Mohammed, pp. 1,094–95.</ref> Ambrose played in two out of West Indies' three matches in an ODI tournament, taking one wicket,<ref name=ODI/> but his performance in taking one wicket in the two Test matches he played—he missed the third match with injury—prompted Fazeer Mohammed, writing in ''Wisden'', to describe Ambrose as "a shadow of his former self".<ref name=Pak97/> Any danger that Ambrose might have retired after this series was forestalled when [[Brian Lara]] was appointed West Indies captain and immediately spoke to Ambrose and Walsh to ask them to continue in the team.<ref>Berry, p. 1,023.</ref> When England toured the West Indies between January and April 1998,<ref name=figures/> he took 30 wickets at 14.26 to top the bowling averages for the series.{{#tag:ref|The first Test was abandoned owing to dangerous playing conditions—the pitch was judged unfit for cricket.<ref name=B1022>Berry (1999), p. 1,022.</ref>|group=note}}<ref>Berry (1999), p. 1,027.</ref> Many of the pitches during the tour were poor for batting, but Ambrose was very effective, particularly in the second, third and fourth Tests. In addition, he dismissed [[Mike Atherton]], the England captain, six times in the series. Scyld Berry wrote in ''Wisden'' that Ambrose was "back to something near his peak form&nbsp;... [He] defied every prediction that he was finished after his tour of Pakistan."<ref name=B1022/> In the second Test, Ambrose took eight wickets; he conceded only 23 runs from 26 overs in the first innings and bowled a spell of five wickets for 16 runs from 47 deliveries in the second to complete figures of five for 52.<ref>Marks, Vic in Berry (1999), pp. 1,034–35.</ref> Having won the second match, West Indies lost the third, but according to [[Matthew Engel]], "Ambrose's abiding power was the most constant feature of a fluctuating match".<ref name=3T98>Engel, Matthew in Berry (1999), pp. 1,037–38.</ref> His eight wickets in the game, including five for 25 in the first innings, took him past fifty Test wickets in Trinidad.<ref name=3T98/> He followed up with six wickets in West Indies victory in the fourth Test, taking four for 38 in the final innings. Tony Cozier wrote that Ambrose "thundered in, arms and knees pumping like pistons, to generate all of his old pace."<ref>Cozier, Tony in Berry (1998), pp. 1,041–42.</ref> Following the Test series, which West Indies won 3–1, Ambrose played in the first three matches of the ODI series,<ref>Berry (1999), pp. 1,048–52.</ref> and took three wickets.<ref name=ODI/>