Dear Editor,
Former West Indies and Guyana star batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul who has been sidelined by the selectors is now training to be a cricket coach. The disappointed Chanderpaul who feels that the selectors did not handle his exit properly, was one of the 20 coaches from around the USA who attended a ten-hour coaching seminar conducted by former Australia all-rounder, Tom Moody at Fort Lauderdale Florida.
Shiv who was the backbone of the Windies batting for more than a decade in his 21-year international career, although interested in a potential coaching career, still believes that at age 42 he still has a lot of cricket in him since he is fit. He plays club cricket for Sarasota in Florida and last week he scored 160 and 140. He said, “My legs remember what to do; my body remembers what to do, my mind, my eyes. It’s just to hit a few balls and I’m good to go.”
It is his wish to play at least one more first class season for Guyana in order to guide the young players. I sincerely hope that the Guyana selectors will see it fit to accede to his request. After all he deserves much more than that. The West Indies Cricket Board continues to treat their star shabbily as they did former captain Courtney Walsh and opening batting star Desmond Haynes and many others.
The West Indies has quite a few promising youngsters according to ‘Tiger’ and they need guidance and encouragement. He said Shimron Heymyer is one who played extremely well during the last tournament.
Chanderpaul played 164 Test matches and scored 11,867 runs in his 280 innings at an average of 51.37. He was not out on 49 occasions. He scored 30 centuries and his highest score was 203 not out. Although he is known to be a defensive batsman, he scored the third fastest Test century. He played 268 ODIs and scored 8,778 runs at an average of 41.60 including 11 centuries and 59 half centuries.
He also captained the West Indies team on 16 occasions and is the 7th highest run scorer of all time.
Yours faithfully,
Oscar Ramjeet
