Curtly Ambrose and when he returned to England to play for Northamptonshire in 1990, took 58 first-class wickets to top the club's bowling averages. In one-day cricket for the county, he took 13 wickets while conceding an average of just 2.53 runs per over. West Indies toured Pakistan in late 1990, and Ambrose topped the team's bowling averages in a three-match series which was drawn 1–1. He took 14 wickets at 17.07, but was overshadowed slightly by the performances of Ian Bishop. He played the first two ODIs, but missed the third after Pakistan had already won the series, and his best
Curtly Ambrose following year. A Viv Richards scholarship provided funding for him to play club cricket in England for Chester Boughton Hall Cricket Club in the highly rated Liverpool Competition during 1986 where he took 84 wickets at an average of 9.80. The following year, he returned to England to play for Heywood Cricket Club in the Central Lancashire League, for whom he took 115 wickets in the season; these experiences helped to improve his bowling technique. Upon his return to Antigua, Ambrose practised intensely, regained his place in the Leeward Islands team and, in the absence of leading bowlers Winston Benjamin