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Watch: When Dean Jones made a ‘mistake’ by asking Curtly Ambrose to bowl without his wristband

by Wisden Staff January 16, 2024 - 11:20am 3 minute read

Dean Jones admitted to making a mistake by asking Curtly Ambrose to remove his wristband while bowling during the first World Series Cup final in 1993. What followed was pure carnage from Ambrose.

Australia and West Indies qualified for the best-of-three final, the competition also involving Pakistan, and faced each other in the first final on January 16 in Sydney. The visitors, led by a half-century from Brian Lara, scored 239-8 batting first.

Australia got off to a cautious start, scoring 41 for the opening wicket before Curtly Ambrose, bowling first change, dismissed David Boon.

The wristband incident: Dean Jones asks Ambrose to remove his gear

Before facing his first delivery, Jones, at No.3, walked up to Mark Taylor at the other end for a conversation, then to umpire Terry Prue to seemingly complain about Ambrose’s white wristband, which was allegedly a hindrance to the batters facing the white ball.

It's 24 years to the day since Dean Jones made a big, BIG mistake!

This is gold from @ProfDeano, @bowlologist and Curtly!

via @OptusSport pic.twitter.com/NuHbIVHt0h

— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) January 16, 2017

“Umpire Prue has a difficult task here: he has to convince Curtly Ambrose, who is six foot eight, that he has to take off his sweatband on his right wrist before he bowls to Dean Jones,” said Richie Benaud on air.

Jones later revealed his intention: “I noticed Ambrose was bowling the ball on a shoebox on the off-stump and Boonie was struggling to hit him off the square. And I said, hang on, he wears white sweatbands for the white ball and red ones for the red ball, and we are looking for release points. And I thought, if I get him upset, I think it might make him bowl a little loose. I looked at him, and said, ‘Curtly, take your sweatbands off. Please.’”

Ambrose was not amused: “I found that to be a strange request. What’s the big deal? What is the reason? It’s not something I’ve just put on, I’ve been doing it all my career. I was very reluctant to do it. If you see the footage, I thought I wasn’t going to do it because the request was nonsense really.”

Ambrose, however, was persuaded by his teammates to heed Jones’ request and that the best retaliation would be with the ball. Jones, on the other hand, found little support from his teammates. “I had eleven West Indians and one Australian sledging me. And it was Mark Taylor, he’s going, “I’ve got two kids, what are you doing?””

What followed was mayhem

Ambrose admitted being upset with Jones. “I was really upset with him and I told myself, I’m going to make it darn hard for him. I’m going to really rough him up. He should be as uncomfortable as possible”

That was how it panned out. “The next three balls were the quickest, fastest deliveries you’ll ever see in your life,” recalled Jones.

Ambrose charged down to Jones, who was batting with a broken thumb. Jones left a good-length ball alone, and Ambrose was fired up. The next ball was faster, and Jones offered no fat. The third ball hit Jones on the pad, but it seemed to be above his knee, and the appeal was turned down.

Ambrose grew more menacing as the innings progressed, much to Jones’s horror. He extracted steep bounce, bowled with searing pace, and dismissed Taylor for 28. He went on to dismiss Ian Healy, Tony Dodemaide and Craig McDermott as well.

Healy’s wicket, with a brilliant slow ball that broke his stumps, was the highlight. It left Ambrose laughing, who soaked in all the silliness that happened during the game.

Sir Curtly Ambrose !!! pic.twitter.com/5i9VK91MTq

— Zeeshan Khattak (@khattak) August 25, 2018

He ended with 5-32 as West Indies bundled out Australia for 214, and then the second final to win the tournament. With 18 wickets, Ambrose was the Player of the Series.

Jones later admitted he made a mistake by having a go at Ambrose.