Former West Indies skipper Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Celebrate his 50th birthday Today. He is one of the finest cricketers that the West Indies has ever produced.
Considered to be one of the greatest cricketers of his era, the Guyana-born southpaw has amassed more than 20000 runs in international cricket.
shivnarine Chanderpaul has over 11000 runs at an average of 50+ in Tests and over 8000 runs at an average of 41 in ODIs. His average in the ODIs is better than Brian Charles Lara’s. He is the second-highest run-scorer for West Indies across the three formats. He has 166 scores of 50+ (50s – 125, 100s – 41), the most for them. How can someone not call him a legend?
His career spanned over two decades. Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya are the only ones whose careers have spanned as much. In 2008, he was named as the Cricketer of the Year by Wisden and was also awarded the ICC Cricketer of the Year award.
His unorthodox batting stance did not take anything away from his batting prowess. Even though he played in the shadow of the great Brian Lara, he carved his own niche in the squad.
He made his debut in 1994 versus England at the age of 19. But he was criticized heavily in his early years due to the inability to score big runs. He was plagued by injuries and also had a piece of bone removed from foot in 2000. Ever since then it was as if he was an entirely new person as he started playing the best kind of cricket he could and there was no looking back for him.
He retired from international cricket in 2016 at the age of 41. Since then, he has played first-class cricket in England and also continues to play first-class cricket for his native country, Guyana.
Following a below-par year in 2015, Clive Lloyd, the then-selector, wrote to Chanderpaul that they had decided to move on. “You have been a great player for the West Indies and have given excellent service to the game and West Indies supporters worldwide,” Lloyd added. “We hope your skills will be utilized in the future, and we wish you all the best.”
The Guyana cricket board even expressed its grief following the snub. “Our board just cannot believe nor even fathom the thought process behind the wanton dropping of the most senior, reliable, and dependable batsman of the West Indies for the past 21 years,” they said. “Is this how the selectors intend to treat our esteemed cricketers after more than two decades of service to the people of West Indies cricket?”.
The great Lara also felt that the West Indies board could have handled the situation better. “I was very disappointed that Shiv was not allowed a couple more Test matches, not necessarily to break the record but to have a proper send-off. I think he is very disappointed, and unfortunately, that did not happen,” Lara said.”That guy with the most Test matches for the West Indies, playing for over 20 years, I don’t think people in the West Indies understand exactly his contribution.”
He also has a few achievements to his name. Such as,
He holds the record of scoring 50 runs or more and staying unbeaten to his name.
He also made the number 5 position in Test cricket his own by scoring the most runs in that position.
He along with his compatriot Stuart Williams holds the record the highest opening stand for West Indies in ODI’s.
Chanderpaul became the second player after New Zealand’s Graham Dowling to score a double century on captaincy debut in Test matches.
Chanderpaul has been involved in record 750 partnerships in Test cricket. Rahul Dravid is the next on the list with 738, while Sachin Tendulkar has had 675 batting partners.
The left-hander played 385 first-class matches in which he scored 27545 runs and hit 77 centuries. In 423 List-A matches, Chanderpaul amassed 13439 runs, which included 13 tons.
In Test cricket he has scored 11,867 runs, in ODI he has 8778 runs and in T20I, he has scored 343 runs. He also has 30 centuries in Test matches and 11 centuries in ODIs. So, on his 45th birthday, let’s have a look at three of his best innings.