Shivnarine Chanderpaul was rewarded last night for an excellent year in international cricket when he was crowned Cricketer of the Year. West Indies fans have known for many years that he is a monotonously reliable batsman whose weight of runs has been overshadowed by the peerlessly flashy Brian Lara until his recent retirement.
The last time I saw Chanderpaul play was on the 2nd day of the 4th Test against England last year at Chester-le-Street. West Indies were in a sorry state and were already 2 nil down in the series having been beaten by an innings and 283 runs and 60 runs in the previous two Tests at Leeds and Manchester respectively. In contrast to the general ineptitude of his team mates Shiv shone among them.
Previous to that day, I had driven up to Durham from Cambridge in the pouring rain and funnily enough play on the first day of the Test was completely washed out and the second day did not get started until after lunch. I’m sure England had more than an element of glee after winning the toss and putting the tourists in to bat. Predictably, in what little play there was on day 2, West Indies lost 4 wickets leaving Chanderpaul and Bravo battling at the end in bowler friendly conditions before the rains came again. Out of a West Indian first innings score of 287, Chanderpaul made an unbeaten 136 runs. Pure class, but he’s been here time and again in the recent past. It was only in the second innings of that match that he was dismissed for 70. Before which he had been not been dismissed for over 18 hours.
His place in the Test team of the year is obvious:
- Graeme Smith;
- Virender Sehwag;
- Mahela Jaywardena;
- Shivnarine Chanderpaul;
- Kevin Pietersen;
- Jacques Kallis;
- Kumar Sangakkara;
- Brett Lee;
- Ryan Sidebottom;
- Dale Steyn;
- Muttiah Muralidaran.
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