Caribbean cousins on show one last time

But when Ambrose, 36, and Walsh, 37, walk out together for the final time as West Indies teammates it will be a touching good bye. Ambrose stands firm on retiring after the current five-Test series, while Walsh, just 24 wickets short of becoming the first bowler to take 500 Test wickets, is still mulling his future.

The breakup of one of the most successful fast-bowling combinations over the last 12 years happens at a time when West Indies cricket has hit a new low. Jimmy Adams’ team has performed poorly since the humiliation at Lord’s in the second Test in June, and a 3-1 series loss looks inevitable as England stand poised for its first series win over the West Indies in 31 years.

It will take an extraordinary effort from the visitors to square the series and save face as pressure mounts on a team that once dominated world cricket in both Tests and One-Dayers.

There have been pleas for Ambrose to continue. If he does there is no doubt Walsh, who plans to make a decision in the next few weeks about his future, will postpone his own retirement. West Indies’ Cricket Board President Pat Rousseau will make one last bid to change Ambrose’s decision and preserve the veteran duo.

“I hope to have a talk with Curtly on today,” Rousseau said. “A lot of great bowlers bowl in tandem and do very well for each other — when one goes, the other is not always as effective. I might try to talk Courtney into trying to talk Curtly out of it, but it won’t be easy.”

Ambrose and Walsh have been the most successful bowlers for the tourists, defying detractors who have repeatedly called for the two to step aside in favour of the young brigade of Reon King, Franklyn Rose, Nixon McLean, and Corey Collymore, Mervyn Dillon, Pedro Collins, Kerry Jeremy and Dwight Mais.

Walsh and Ambrose have taken 41 wickets in the Test series against England — Walsh’s 27 victims at an average of 10.92 and Ambrose’s 14 at 17.35.

The rest of the team — King, Rose, McLean and Adams — have taken 16 wickets between them.

The pair has formed one of the most lethal and feared fast bowling combinations the world has ever seen. They have combined to take a 411 wickets in the 48 matches they have shared the new ball, claiming a wicket every 54 balls.

It is second only to the 472 wickets shared by the Pakistani duo of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis in 49 matches, striking every 45 balls.

“What Ambrose and Walsh have done consistently, is to show every one of us, those who are in the team or squad now, those who are watching and even those who are aspiring to the team, that it is not an impossibility to be a consistent performer,” Adams said.

There has also been criticism of the younger bowlers who are perceived by some to have a selfish attitude. "A lot of them have lacked respect for the senior players, and given the impression they are there to make a living, not to represent the country," former West Indies fast bowler Michael Holding wrote in Daily Telegraph

on Tuesday.

Ambrose has publicly criticised the lack of commitment from the three supporting fast bowlers on tour — Rose, King and Collymore — saying he is fed up with carrying the burden of the attack with Walsh.

Adams defended the three, countering: “I cannot say I agree with that statement at all.”

Only the retirement of Ambrose and Walsh only time will tell whether the younger crop can maintain the high standard of West Indies cricket.