Shivnarine Chanderpaul

Shivnarine Chanderpaul

Source: [1], June 19 2008

Shivnarine 'Shiv' Chanderpaul (born 16 August, 1974 in Unity Village, Demerara-Mahaica, Guyana) is a cricketer, and former captain of the West Indies cricket team. He is the first Indo-Caribbean in the West Indies team to play 100 Tests for the West Indies and has captained them in 14 Tests and 16 One Day Internationals. Chanderpaul is currently ranked as the number one batsman in the world in the current ICC test rankings[2].

Career

A West Indian cricketer of East Indian origin, the left-handed Chanderpaul is known for his doggedness and ability to stick on the wicket for long hours. He is infamous in the cricketing world for his very unorthodox front-on batting stance, although he shifts his body into a more conventional position when he plays the ball, thus making him a prolific scorer on both sides of the wicket. His stance allows him to get most of his runs behind the wicket. Chanderpaul is renowned for playing left arm spin bowlers by getting his pad outside the line of off-stump, and hiding his bat behind the pad, in immitation of a shot, but without the risk of edging the ball.

Chanderpaul's first notable impact on Test cricket was as being the last batting partner of Brian Lara when Lara broke Gary Sobers' record of 365 not out in the fifth and final Test against England in 1993-94. Lara went on to make 375 before he was caught off Andrew Caddick's bowling, sharing a 219-run stand with Chanderpaul, who was left not out on 75.

Chanderpaul made his first Test century in his 19th Test match - after having scored 15 half-centuries in the preceding 18 matches. In the third of a five-Test series against India in 1996-97, he made 137* at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados. He also featured with his Guyanese counterpart, and current West Indian vice captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, making 104 in chasing a world record 418 to win in the fourth innings of the final Test match versus Australia in 2002-03.

Chanderpaul's best first class score is 303* versus Jamaica for Guyana, and, despite his reputation as a dogged batsman, he has also made the fourth fastest century in Test cricket, scoring three figures in just 67 balls at the GCC Ground Bourda, Guyana, also in the 2002-03 series against Australia.

He was named captain of the West Indies in the first Test versus South Africa in March 2005 in Guyana, after seven senior players including captain Brian Lara were dropped in a sponsorship row. He emulated Graham Dowling to become only the second player to make a double century on debut as a Test captain, scoring an unbeaten 200 and making a sporting declaration in the first Test. It was announced that Lara would return to the team for the second Test, but Chanderpaul would retain the captaincy for the rest of the series. He was named to the squad of 20 for the World XI to face Australia in the Super Test in October 2005, but when the squad was cut to 14 names in August his name was not mentioned.

An innings-by-innings breakdown of Chanderpaul's Test match batting career, showing runs scored (red bars) and the average of the last ten innings (blue line).

Chanderpaul remains one of the most recognisable faces in all of the West Indies, particularly his native Guyana, and he has come a long way from his first 50 in his first Test versus England in 1993-94 at Bourda to his current status as a former captain.

In April 2006, Chanderpaul resigned as West Indies captain in order to concentrate on his batting. He captained a weak West Indies team, and his record was not a successful one. In fourteen Tests he won one and lost ten with three draws. In sixteen One-Day Internationals, he won two and lost fourteen. Later in the month the captaincy was restored to veteran batsman Brian Lara.

Chanderpaul has recently reached the milestone of 100 Test caps, the 8th West Indian to do so and the first of East Indian descent.At the conclusion of the 2008 Australian tour of the West Indies, Chanderpaul will appear in the All Star line up for the 2008 Hong Kong Sixes on November 8th,2008. The Hong Kong Sixes was formed in 1992, and has become an annual fixture, attracting greats such as Brian Charles Lara, , Sachin Tendulkar, Steve and Mark Waugh, Sir Viv Richards, Andrew Flintoff, Adam Gilchrist and Wasim Akram and now Shivnarine Chanderpaul adding his name to the fixtures.

2007 Tour of England

With the Lara era of West Indian cricket at an end, Chanderpaul has emerged as the West Indies senior batsman. In the recent West Indies tour of England Chanderpaul averaged an amazing 148.66 with the bat. This included two undefeated centuries in the third and fourth test matches. In the third test match his 116 not out almost won the game for the West Indies, until wickets of tail-end batsmen began to fall quickly which left him stranded due to his position at no 5 in the batting order, however in the recent One Day International against England he was promoted to No 3.During the test Chanderpaul averaged just under 12 hours per dissmisal

England captain Michael Vaughan was moved to remark that it was the finest test innings he had ever seen. During the third test match Chanderpaul went past 7000 runs in test cricket, a feat only accomplished by six other West Indians: Brian Lara, Sir Vivian Richards, Sir Garfield Sobers, Desmond Haynes, Gordon Greenidge and Clive Lloyd.

He was jointly named Man of the Series alongside England's Monty Panesar. His success saw him signed up by Durham for the second half of the 2007 English county season.

For his efforts in England in 2007, and other batting performances, Chanderpaul was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year 2008. Chanderpaul is with without a doubt the best West Indian batsman in the current batting line-up, maintaining a batting average of around 49, which continues to build.

Chanderpaul's efforts with the bat continue to win him may accolades as he was named ICC player of the year for 2008. With opposition's inability to get him out, one wonders where the little man from the WI will do with the bat in the future!

2008 Sri Lankan and Australian tours to the Caribbean

In 2008 Chanderpaul continued in his rich vein of form during the Sri Lankan and Australian tours of the Caribbean. During the 2008 season he rose to be ranked 5th in the Test batting rankings. At the end of the Second Test against Australia he was closing in on 8000 test runs - a rare feat among batsmen and one that has only been accomplished by Gary Sobers, Viv Richards and Brian Lara among West Indian Test batsmen. By the end of the third test against Australia, Chanderpaul became the fourth West Indian batsman to accomplish 8000 runs in test cricket as well as rising in the ranks to 2nd of the ICC test rankings, just 4 points shy of becoming the world's number 1 ranked batsman at that point. In the test match series against the Australians, Chanderpaul had amassed 442 runs in 6 innings, in 3 of which he had remained not out, at an average of 147.33, which included two centuries and three half-centuries. From the West Indies second innings in the first Test, he was not dismissed until the final day of the series - more than 1,000 minutes of batting without losing his wicket, and incredibly the fourth time he has achieved this feat in Test cricket.

Trivia

Some of his quirkier traits include having "baseball-style" tape under his eyes, which he started wearing after a successful run scoring spree in the United States, and using a bail from the stumps to "mark his guard". He is known for immense concentration at the crease which he can maintain for extended periods of time, drawing comparisons to batting greats such as Lara and Bradman. Chanderpaul is one of the few players to have gone 1000 minutes in Test cricket without conceding his wicket. He has done this four times, and is the only player to have done so more than once. However depite his extended stays at the wicket, he also has the ability to 'shift gears' particularly in the one day game where he has scored some of the fastest centuries to date[3] He also bats very well with the tail, often refusing to remain not out at the end of the innings trying to add as many runs as possible without exposing the tail to the strike.

References

• Shivnarine Chanderpaul at ESPNcricinfo
• Interview from Yahoo!
• Chanderpaul resigns as captain from Cricinfo
• Chanderpaul signs up for Hong Kong Cricket Sixes
• Shiv Chanderpaul Fan Site