Shivnarine Chanderpaul

Shivnarine 'Shiv' Chanderpaul (born 16 August 1974 in Unity Village, Demerara-Mahaica, Guyana) is a cricketer, and former captain of the West Indies cricket team. He is the first Indo-Caribbean in the West Indies team to play 100 Tests for the West Indies and has captained them in 14 Tests and 16 One Day Internationals. Chanderpaul is ranked as the number four batsman in the world under the current ICC test rankings, and has previously been ranked as high as one


Career
A West Indian cricketer of Indian origin, the left-handed Chanderpaul is known for his doggedness and ability to stick on the wicket for long hours. He is known in the cricketing world for his unorthodox front-on batting stance, although he shifts his body into a more conventional position when he plays the ball, thus making him a prolific scorer on both sides of the wicket. His stance allows him to get most of his runs behind the wicket. Chanderpaul is renowned for playing left arm spin bowlers by getting his pad outside the line of off-stump, and hiding his bat behind the pad, in imitation of a shot, but without the risk of edging the ball.

Chanderpaul's first notable impact on Test cricket was as being the last batting partner of Brian Lara when Lara broke Gary Sobers' record of 365 not out in the fifth and final Test against England in 1993-94. Lara went on to make 375 before he was caught off Andrew Caddick's bowling, sharing a 219-run stand with Chanderpaul, who was left not out on 75.

Chanderpaul made his first Test century in his 19th Test match - after having scored 15 half-centuries in the preceding 18 matches. In the third of a five-Test series against India in 1996-97, he made 137* at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados. He also featured with his Guyanese counterpart, and current West Indian vice captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, making 104 in chasing a world record 418 to win in the fourth innings of the final Test match versus Australia in 2002-03.

Chanderpaul's best first class score is 303* versus Jamaica for Guyana, and, despite his reputation as a dogged batsman, he has also made the fourth fastest century in Test cricket, scoring three figures in just 67 balls at the Bourda, Guyana, also in the 2002-03 series against Australia. This innings was twice as quick as his next fastest, and took 267 deliveries fewer than he needed to reach 100 against India the previous season.[2]

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 emulated Graham Dowling to become only the second player to make a double century on debut as a Test captain, scoring an unbeaten 200 and making a sporting declaration in the first Test. It was announced that Lara would return to the team for the second Test, but Chanderpaul would retain the captaincy for the rest of the series. He was named to the squad of twenty for the World XI to face Australia in the Super Test in October 2005, but when the squad was cut to fourteen names in August his name was not mentioned.



Chanderpaul remains one of the most recognisable faces in all of the West Indies, particularly his native Guyana, and he has come a long way from his first fifty in his first Test versus England in 1993-94 at Bourda to his current status as a former captain.

In April 2006, Chanderpaul resigned as West Indies captain in order to concentrate on his batting. He captained a weak West Indies team, and his record was not a successful one. In fourteen Tests he won one and lost ten with three draws. In sixteen one-day internationals, he won two and lost fourteen. Later in the month the captaincy was restored to veteran batsman Brian Lara.

Chanderpaul has recently reached the milestone of 100 Test caps, the 8th West Indian to do so and the first of East Indian descent.At the conclusion of the 2008 Australian tour of the West Indies, Chanderpaul will appear in the All Star line up for the 2008 Hong Kong Sixes on 8 November 2008. The Hong Kong Sixes was formed in 1992, and has become an annual fixture, attracting greats such as Brian Charles Lara, Sachin Tendulkar, Steve and Mark Waugh, Sir Viv Richards, Andrew Flintoff, Adam Gilchrist, and Wasim Akram.


2007 Tour of England
With the Lara era of West Indian cricket reaching a conclusion, Chanderpaul emerged as the West Indies senior batsman. In the 2007 West Indies tour of England, Chanderpaul averaged 148.66 with the bat. This included two undefeated centuries in the third and fourth Tests. His 116 not out in the third Test, almost won the game for the tourists, until wickets of tail-end batsmen began to fall quickly, leaving him stranded, as England completed a 60-run victory. During the third test match Chanderpaul went past 7000 runs in test cricket, a feat only accomplished by six other West Indians: Brian Lara, Sir Vivian Richards, Sir Garfield Sobers, Desmond Haynes, Gordon Greenidge and Clive Lloyd. He was jointly named Man of the Series alongside England's Monty Panesar. Despite batting at number 5 in the Tests, he was promoted to number 3 in the following One Day International series.

His success saw him signed up by Durham for the second half of the 2007 English county season. For his efforts in England in 2007, and other batting performances, Chanderpaul was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year 2008. Chanderpaul's efforts with the bat continue to win him many accolades as he was named ICC player of the year for 2008








Records
Chanderpaul holds a number of batting records, in particular:

Chanderpaul is one of only six players to have gone 1000 minutes in Test cricket without conceding his wicket. He has done this four times, and is the only player to have done so more than once.
He is also the only batsman in the history of Test cricket to have faced 1000 consecutive balls without getting out.
He is the one of only four batsmen to have averaged more than 100 in two different calendar years (*qualification 400 runs) and the only one other than Sir Donald Bradman to do so in consecutive years.
Chanderpaul has scored the then third fastest Test Hundred in the history of the game against Australia at Georgetown, Guyana.
He is currently the second highest run scorer for the West Indies, with over 8000 test runs, having overtaken Viv Richards on 17 May 2009, only Brain Lara has scored more.
He is one of only three players to score half-centuries in seven consecutive Test innings