Arunabha Sengupta looks at some of the most famous feuds of cricket. Here he covers the on field action between Curtly Ambrose and Steve Waugh.
This major conflict was not a long lasting one. In fact, it was a spur of the moment affair, hardly extending to the next over – let alone years as most of the other feuds of this series.
However, it merits a mention because of the dramatic element associated with it. Even Warne certified it saying that it was the ugliest incident on the cricket field he had witnessed, exceeding anything involving Ranatunga.
It was at the Queen’s Park Oval, 1995. West Indies, not beaten in a series for 16 years, was in the unaccustomed position of being one match down. Curtly Ambrose had not been among the wickets for the first two Tests. And here, he was greeted by a carpet of green.
After Richie Richardson had won the toss and put the Aussies in, Courtney Walsh had snared out Michael Slater, and Ambrose had got rid of Mark Taylor and Mark Waugh. Steve Waugh walked in at 14 for three, with the giant fast bowler breathing fire.
After peppering Waugh with a barrage of short balls, Ambrose, according to Waugh’s West Indian Tour Diary, “followed through to within two metres away from me and gave me the regulation Clint Eastwood stare. I thought he went on with the silent assassin-style interrogation for longer (than) was necessary, so I came back with, ‘What the f— are you looking at?’”
Ambrose was stunned beyond belief. As Waugh puts it, “No one had ever been stupid enough” to speak to him like that. The big fast bowler came closer to him and said, “Don’t cuss me, maan.”
Waugh writes, “His eyeballs were spinning and as he edged to within a metre, it seemed he was ready to erupt. At this point, I gave him a short but sweet reply that went down about as well as an anti-malaria tablet. Fortunately, Richie Richardson moved in swiftly to avert what could have been my death by strangulation, and the game continued.”
As the dramatic video clips and photographs show, Richardson was forced to physically remove Ambrose from the fray.
What was the short sweet response that Waugh speaks about? In Out of my Comfort Zone,Waugh lifted the lid on the last fuzzy bit about the incident, writing, “Unfortunately, nothing inventive or witty came to mind, rather another piece of personal abuse: ‘Why don’t you go and get f***ed?’”
Richardson recalls, “It probably looked as if it could have been serious, but I don’t think it would have been. I said to Curtly, ‘Come, don’t waste my time, let’s get on with the job. Our job is to get him out.’
When asked about the possibility of an actual physical confrontation, Richardson played it down, saying, “No, no, no. It never would have happened. Both guys are serious competitors and they are also professional, and there’s no way they would have brought the game into disrepute.”
The next two balls were about as fast as Ambrose has ever bowled.
The incident seemed to spur both the champions to great feats in the innings. Ambrose captured 5 for 45 to skittle out the Australians for 128, but Waugh remained unbeaten on a heroic 63.