Curtly Ambrose involving Zimbabwe and Pakistan. These were his final ODIs; in 176 matches, he took 225 wickets at an average of 24.12 and conceding 3.48 runs per over. Pakistan subsequently played a three-Test series against West Indies; in his last home series, Ambrose took 11 wickets at 19.90 to head the West Indian bowling averages. Before his next series, a five-match series in England, Ambrose announced that he would retire after the final Test, although the president of the West Indies Cricket Board unavailingly tried to persuade him to continue for a little longer. West Indies lost the series 3–1, Tony
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