Viv Richards come out to defend Curtly Ambrose

Sir Viv Richards has come out in defense of West Indies bowling consultant Curtly Ambrose who was sacked shortly after the completion of the World T20. The former West Indies pacer was replaced by Rod Eastwick, a former Barbados First class cricketer for the upcoming Tri-nation series involving the South Africana and the Aussies.

Earlier, Ambrose had stated that any technical difficulties the players were facing should have been dealt with before they made their way into the West Indies setup. “If you have technical issues, then you shouldn’t be in the team and I could be wrong, but that’s the way I look at it,” Ambrose said.

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Viv Richards concurred with Ambrose stating a similar concept Ambrose had stated. “That’s for the academies, in my opinion, and he (Ambrose) put it so perfectly when he said that if you are going to need all this technical help later on when you are part of the senior team, it means that something is wrong and it’s quite mind-boggling,” Richards was quoted as saying by The Barbados Today on Thursday.

Franklyn Stephenson, the director of the Franklyn Stephenson Academy has lashed out at the former West Indies pacer, calling him the ‘Worst coach’ he had ever seen. Stephenson is usually considered to be perhaps the best player to never play for the West Indies. He was part of the Rebel side that toured Australia in the 1980s and was subsequently banned from West Indies cricket for life. He, however, made a name for himself in English county cricket in the 1980s.

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“He was a fantastic bowler but he’s the worst coach I’ve seen. He came here (Franklyn Stephenson Academy) to our camp but didn’t say a single word to any bowler. He is just for show, nothing more,” Stephenson said then.

“They’ve been the worst coaches. The results tell you that,” he had earlier said.