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Chanderpaul

When Brian Lara retired from world cricket, several players heaved a collective sigh of relief. Most of these were obviously bowlers and the rest were rival captains. But, there was one West Indian cricketer who let out an inadvertant sigh of relief too. He is Shivnarine Chanderpaul... the perpetual second fiddler to the Master - both in the team and in the collective psyche of Caribbean cricket.

Since Lara's retirement in December 2006, this dimunitive Guyanese left-hander has been in overdrive for the West Indies test team scoring at an average of over 100 an innings throughout 2007 and continuing in the same vein this year too. Small wonder that he picked up two of cricket's highest awards this year - the ICC Player of the Year as well as the Wisden Cricketer of the year for 2008.

The 34-year-old batsman who astounds everyone with his completely square-on stance, the pronounced shuffle towards off-stump and the wristy power that he generates, seems to be playing with a purpose these days. In 20 test innings since December 2006, Chanderpaul has aggregated 1265 test runs at a whopping average of 105.41 with five centuries and nine fifties.

His fans believe that this player who probably holds the dubious distinction of possessing the most ungainly technique in the world of cricket, is out to prove a few points - more so to himself than to his detractors. Starting off as a batsman whose rate of converting fifties into hundreds was the lowest in contemporary cricket (1:10), Chanderpaul strung together a series of centuries starting with three in four tests against India.

An acrimonious contracts dispute saw Chanderpaul use his leadership skills to keep the team united though his passivity on the field gave a series win to South Africa in 2005. A year later, he quit captaincy claiming that he wanted to focus on batting and then came the deluge.

Centuries against India, Australia, South Africa and a limpet-like performance against England in the 2007 series with 446 runs in three test matches, saw Chanderpaul finally shrug off the "second fiddle" tag. He is now the batting star in the West Indian team led by the dashing Chris Gayle, a player with whom Chanderpaul opened the innings in one-day matches.

During the ICC year which runs from August to July, Chanderpaul smashed three tons and six half-centuries in 15 innings to aggregate 819 runs at an average of 91 which was higher than any other player in test matches. He currently boasts of a test average of 49 with over 8000 runs from 112 tests.

The West Indies team is scheduled to play test matches against New Zealand and England in the medium term and going by the way Chanderpaul seems to be making up for all those missed opportunities in the past, it looks like this ungainly left-hander will surely gain more encomiums in the months ahead.

What's more, Chanderpaul has also ensured that West Indian cricket has not missed Brian Charles Lara in the middle order!

Source: India Syndicate

sara_narasimhan	Latest page update: made by sara_narasimhan , Sep 19 2008, 2:13 AM EDT (about this update About This Update new story sara_narasimhan - sara_narasimhan 509 words added 1 image added view changes - complete history)
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