DERBYSHIRE, United Kingdom, CMC-Head coach, Karl Krikken, has described West Indies cricketer Shivnarine Chanderpaul as a batting legend whose experience can help transform Derbyshire into one of the top four Clubs in English County Cricket.
Chanderpaul has signed a two-year contract to play for Derbyshire promoted to play in division one this year after winning division two last year.
Krikken says the presence of the 38-year-old West Indies batsman will be invaluable to the younger players.
“Chanderpaul is a legend of West Indian cricket if not world cricket and he has been superb in the past 15 to 20 years around the game,” Krikken said in an interview with BBC East Midlands.
“As well as scoring runs which we hope he will and I am sure he will do, he will impart knowledge in the changing room to the younger players and that’s invaluable really. Most of our batting line-up is a young set of players and they will learn from him”.
Chanderpaul has had several previous spells in county cricket having helped Durham win in 2008 and 2009 and playing for Lancashire in 2010 and in 2011 representing Warwickshire.
The Guyanese batsman is expected to be available for the full season starting April and his two year deal also includes the club having first option to keep him for a third season.
“We believe at this present time (he will play) probably all season.
When we started speaking to him about three or four months ago it looked like he was going to miss the Twenty/20s due to his test commitment,” said Krikken.
“But they have changed now and they are not playing test they are playing one day internationals and at present Shriv is not playing in the one-day side. So it looks he will be available for all season”.
Chanderpaul is currently the number two ranked batsman in test cricket behind Australian Michael Clarke.
