Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the second most prolific Test cricketer in Windies history, has been is awarded with an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of the West Indies’ (UWI) St Augustine campus.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
The 43-year-old batsman was bestowed with the Honorary Doctor of Laws during the campus graduation ceremony on Thursday.
During a Test career that spanned two decades (1994-2015), Chanderpaul played a record 164 Tests for the Windies scoring 11,867 runs at an average of 51.37. During that time he scored 30 Test centuries and 66 fifties and was a stabilizing force in the Windies middle order.
He was also prolific in ODIs, amassing 8,778 runs at an average of 41.60 in 268 matches during which he scored 11 centuries and 59 half-centuries.
Chanderpaul announced his retirement from international cricket in January 2016. He was 41 years old and had not played for the Windies since May of the previous year.
Windies selectors said he was not considered for selection following a poor run of form during which he averaged 15.33. This prompted Windies great Brian Lara to express his disappointment at the way in which Chanderpaul was dropped.
In 1999 in East London, South Africa, Chanderpaul made his highest One Day International score when he opened the batting and scored 150 during a splendid partnership with Carl Hooper. It was the only One-Day match of that series that West Indies won.
He score a hundred in a Test record 4th innings score of 418 to win the final Test against
Australia in 2003, and avoid a series whitewash. Despite his reputation as a dogged Test batsman he has also made the fourth fastest century in Test cricket, reaching three figures in just 67 balls at Bourda, Guyana, also in the 2003 series against Australia. That Australian bowling attack included Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie, Andy Bichel, Brad Hogg and Stuart MacGill. Chanderpaul said later that he would have preferred to bat longer, not faster!
In 2004, at Bourda, the one-day game against England had been reduced to 30 overs per side with West Indies batting first and Chanderpaul opening. It was painful to watch as he took 34 balls to reach double figures and 50 deliveries to get to 14. The spectators, of course, were unhappy, to say the least. From the next 46 deliveries he made a further 70, in a remarkable and sudden change of gear. West Indies lost a close game, but only a special, single-minded batsman could have had the confidence to come up with such a game-plan and to see it through.
He was named captain of 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 scored 200* and was retained as captain for the rest of the series even though Lara returned in the second Test. In April 2006, Chanderpaul resigned as West Indies captain to concentrate on his batting. In 14 Tests he won 1 and lost 10, with 3 draws. In 16 One Day Internationals he won 2 and lost 14. The captaincy was immediately restored to Brian Lara.
The year 2008 was special for Chandepaul, when he was named the International Cricket Council’s Cricketer of the Year, winning the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy. He was also named Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2008. In July 2008 President Jagdeo of Guyana appointed
Chanderpaul as a member of the Order of Service of Guyana and awarded him the Golden Arrow of Achievement. This was for “his consistently outstanding performance as a cricketer, especially as a batsman, at the national, regional and international levels.”
It was not, however, all fun for him in 2008. In the Test against Australia at Sabina Park in Jamaica, he was felled by a bouncer during a fiery spell by Brett Lee, with his score on 86. Though he lost control of his arms and legs momentarily he stood back up, waved off the paramedics, took guard again and went on to score one of cricket’s most courageous centuries (see photo). In true Chanderpaul style, he later said “The team would have been in trouble if I had left the field then.”
It was also in 2008 that Chanderpaul scored 10 runs (a four and a six) off the last 2 balls of a One-Day International to snatch victory from Sri Lanka in the face of almost certain defeat. West Indies needed 10 runs off the last 2 balls and Chaminda Vaas was bowling.
In March 2009, when Chanderpaul was ranked as the world’s leading Test batsman, he was welcomed back to Guyana by thousands as his motorcade made its way from the airport into Georgetown. He was awarded Guyana’s third highest National Award (Cacique Crown of Honour) for achieving excellence and International standing in the field of Sports. He also received a plot of land from a private developer. A section of New Garden Street running along the Bourda cricket ground was renamed Shiv Chanderpaul Drive in his honour. In early 2011 the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) dropped Chanderpaul and Chris Gayle from the one-day team to play Pakistan in the West Indies and Chanderpaul was asked to retire from One-Day Internationals. He stated shortly after that the new WICB coach’s methods were detrimental to his batting. Chanderpaul also demanded an explanation from WICB Chief Executive Ernest Hilaire for comments he (Hilaire) made about the lack of discipline and application in the West Indies team during the recent series in the Indian sub-continent. He later found himself before the WICB because of this.
On 06 July 2011, in the 3rd Test against India in Dominica, he became the most-capped West Indies player, playing in his 133rd Test match. In this match he, as he did so often before, rescued the West Indies yet again with a century in the second innings – his 23rd Test century overall. The Prime Minister of Dominica, who was attending the match, conferred honorary Dominica citizenship on Chanderpaul on the 5th day of the match, as his broad bat kept the Indian bowlers at bay.
Professional cricket
Chanderpaul represented Durham, Lancashire and Warwickshire, starting from 2007, replacing regular overseas players who were unavailable because of national commitments. He also represented Khulna Royal Bengals in the Bangladesh Premier League, and Uva Next in the Sri Lanka Premier League and enjoyed considerable success in both.
Other
Chanderpaul is also known for using a bail to mark his guard, his open crablike stance when batting, wearing black anti-glare stripes when batting and kissing the pitch whenever he gets a century. He represented Durham for the second half of the 2007 English county season and Lancashire in 2010. In 2011 he agreed to represent Warwickshire in the English County championship.
