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
Curtly Ambrose five for 96 in the first innings and seven wickets in the match. Waving to the crowd as he left the field on the final day with an injury, Ambrose seemed to indicate that he would not tour England again. He ended the series third in the bowling averages with 21 wickets at 24.09. But according to Cozier, the senior players in the team caused problems for the management, and when the players returned home, Ambrose and three other members of the team were fined 10 per cent of their tour fee—in Ambrose's case, the fine was for "general failings