By Emmerson Campbell
Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the second highest run scorer in West Indies cricket history, was yesterday presented with a portrait of himself playing an innings by the top brass of CGX Energy Incorporated at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC).
The portrait, which was painted in England by artist David Skinner, was presented to the former West Indies captain for his outstanding exploits on and off the field of play by Professor Suresh Narine, Chairman of CGX Energy Inc. and Vice President and Founder of the company, Kamal Dookie.
Narine, in his congratulatory remarks, mentioned that the company presented the portrait to Chanderpaul to congratulate him on his conduct and his work ethic, attributes, he said, the company will surely follow.
Said Narine:”In your towering presence in the way you have conducted yourself with great dignity and sportsmanship, CGX would like to congratulate you and we are exposed to follow some of your principles in our company.”
He added “We have to say thank you to Shiv for not only his talent but for the way he has led our hopes and aspirations for what Guyanese can be and we are proud of him. Obviously he has come to me much more than a cricketer. He is an ambassador for our country and for our region.”
Narine also stated that the portrait was painted after Sir Shridath Ramphal, a member of CGX’s legal team, commissioned Skinner to paint a portrait of the world famous cricketer.
In Dookie’s remarks, he echoed the sentiments of Narine and also pledged to be the benefactor of Chanderpaul’s son (Tagenarine)to attend a university to get a degree.
“Your son has amazing cricket talent” said Dookie to Chanderpaul affectionately called ‘Tiger’.
“But I would like to get him a degree. We want to support him to go to a University. Cricket is one thing but academics are another thing and on behalf of CGX, we would like to
port the young people of Guyana because first and foremost education is the way to the future.”
In a brief speech, Chanderpaul thanked Narine and Dookie for presenting him with the painting and stated that the portrait was one of the accolades that he will cherish.
Prior to the presentation, Chanderpaul had hit the winning runs, a straight drive for four to earn the GCC team a victory over the touring Trinidad and Tobago’s Perseverance Sports Club.
In the 30-overs-a-side match, Chanderpaul’s son, Tagenarine top scored with an unbeaten 80.
Perseverance Sports Club had earlier batted first and amassed 168 runs for five wickets.
GCC comfortably romped to victory losing only two wickets. Chanderpaul made an unbeaten 38.
