Curtly Ambrose: Passionate, opinionated, optimistic

from RYAN NARAINE in Antigua

Earlier today, I found myself in a conference room at the Sticky Wicket restaurant in Antigua surrounded by some of the greatest West Indies cricket icons. Sobers was there. Sir Everton Weekes. Roberts, Holding, Garner, Walsh. Sir Viv. Greenidge and Haynes.

I was offered an opportunity to work the room, take my pick, for interviews ahead of this year's Stanford 20/20 tournament. Not sure why but I instinctively looked for Curtly Ambrose, the man from Antigua who is one of 14 "legends" supporting this annual spectacle.

"Trust me," he said, eyes open wide for emphasis. "Trust me on this. This thing will definitely help West Indies cricket."

"Test cricket, for me, is the real cricket. Yes, 20/20 is pure entertainment but I think that if you're a good player with the potential to be great you're surrounded with a professional system, you will be able to adapt easily from 20/20 to Test cricket," he insisted.

I asked him about the risk of young players -- in Stanford's pro teams -- being trained for a 20/20 tournament and developing habits that don't translate to Test cricket. "They said the same thing about the 50-over game. But if you look around this room, you will see a lot of players who knew the difference between Test cricket and one-day cricket. We knew how to adapt and succeed."

"When you look at West Indies cricket today, you see the same bad habits. What do you blame that on? We have to find a way to fix West Indies cricket and this is a start. We already have four 'pro' teams working with full-time coaches and we're training them to be complete cricketers."

"The pro teams aren't training exclusively for 20/20 cricket. The ultimate plan is for all these players to go out and play for the West Indies. I still think Test cricket is the real cricket so, in my mind, we're helping to prepare Test cricketers."

CYNICS AND MOTIVES

Ambrose is surprisingly animated when I mention the cynics who question the motives of Allen Stanford, the Texan financier who is bankrolling the event.

"I would not get involved in this if I didn't think it would help West Indies cricket." There's an edge in his voice. "I would not disgrace, degrade or destroy West Indies cricket. This game made me a household name. I know all the guys in this room feel the same way. Why mess up our good name? For what?"

He believes the doubters are coming around, understanding there's a desperate need for an injection of life into the game in the Caribbean. "We have to get people thinking and talking about West Indies cricket in a good way again and I think the people who had doubt in the beginning are now embracing it... they can't wait for this year's tournament to start."

Now Ambrose is on a roll and his passion is coming through.

"I really think we have an opportunity here to get a new generation to buy into cricket and understand how important it is to the Caribbean region. We can get young players to learn and understand the basics. We can go on to educate them on sacrificing to be a professional. You have to be committed, you can't go half way. We have to start somewhere, trying to educate them about what cricket means to West Indians. We lost all of that..."

HARD, HARD WORK

Ambrose doesn't miss the game. When I ask if he sometimes wishes he could get the new ball again, he laughs out loud. "Me? No way, man. That's hard, hard work, " he said, pointing to the television screen showing today's ODI game between the West Indies and South Africa. "When I retired, that was it. When I look at bowlers taking licks today, I say thank God it's not me out there."

He has no coaching ambitions, saying the year-round travel and patience required "is not for me."

"I think I can play a father-figure role for our fast bowlers. It's not something I've done a lot because I don't think I"m very good at it. I'm not a very patient person and they say I burn a short fuse but I'm learning to be more patient. This is actually helping me with that, to go around, talk to the youngsters, help them understand that it's hard work and a lot of sacrifices."

"Cricket at the moment is a disaster. The team is a disaster. But I think that once we get these teams professionalised, playing on a year-round basis, we can have a winning West Indies team in three to five years. I really believe that."

By this time, Andy Roberts has sauntered over, pulling a chair into our group. "I think you should qualify that statement," Roberts says to Ambrose. "We can get back to the top in 3 years, yes, but only if everyone's on board."

There's are murmurs here that the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and Stanford have been unable to come to terms on an important deal to endorse this tournament as the exclusive annual WICB 20/20 tournament -- a situation that clearly irks the legends.

"I find it baffling that the WICB is not on board. It makes no sense to me. It's not a situation where we want to take over West Indies cricket. We liaise with them about everything. We always do our schedule to make sure there is no conflict. We're insisting on development money to be spent at the grassroots. I don't understand it."

Ambrose is also unhappy with what he calls "non-compliance" by territories that received funding for grassroots development but he declines to go into specifics. "Let's just say that the money is not being spent on development in some countries. It's very disappointing."