Curtly Ambrose in "Wisden", to describe Ambrose as "a shadow of his former self". 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. When England toured the West Indies between January and April 1998, he took 30 wickets at 14.26 to top the bowling averages for the series. 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
History of the West Indian cricket team against Durham, which improved upon Hanif Mohammad's thirty-five-year-old record as the highest score in first-class cricket. The West Indian bowling attack was spearheaded by Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, the latter setting a then world record of 519 wickets. However, these two had both retired by 2001, and their successors failed to maintain the high standards that Ambrose and Walsh had set. Despite the emergence of some good batsmen like Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan, Brian Lara remained the crucial figure of the side. After a 2–0 defeat by New Zealand in 1999–00, Lara was replaced as captain by Jimmy