Ambrose was convinced Rose, Collymore would be next great Windies pace bowling duo
Walsh and Ambrose are widely considered the last in a long line of dominant and fearsome West Indies bowlers that had stretched on for several generations.
Before the heyday of Walsh and Ambrose, West Indies quicks like Wes Hall, Charlie Griffith, Andy Roberts, Colin Croft, Joel Garner, Michael Holding, and Malcolm Marshall hunted in packs as they menacingly stalked the crease of fearful opposition batsmen.
It came to an end with Walsh and Ambrose, however, and so it seems did the West Indies fortunes as a winning team.
“Before Courtney and I left the team, we had around six fast bowlers around us. We thought maybe three or four of them could become great,” Ambrose told the Mason and Guest radio program.
“We had Franklin Rose, Rayon King, Dillon, Nixon McClean, Pedro Collins, and Corey Collymore. Six who I thought would have carried on the tradition of fast bowlers,” he added.
“Courtney and I talked about it and we always felt that Franklin Rose and Corey Collymore would be the two guys to lead the rest of the attack. These were two guys who had tremendous potential to lead the rest of the attack," Ambrose said.
“Franklin Rose turned out to be a bit of an enigma, you never know which side of the bed he’ll wake up on up. So, you can never be too sure with him. Collymore, when he first played against Australia in 1999, I said to Courtney ‘hey we have a young man here who looks the part’ and then, unfortunately, his back went out soon after that and he has never been the same.”
In recent times, Kemar Roach, who recently claimed his 200th Test wicket, has come to the fore along with Shannon Gabriel, Jason Holder, and Alzarri Joseph to give the bowling line-up more credibility.