In conferring an Honorary Doctor of Laws to the eminent cricketer, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, The University of the West Indies has done well to bring the illustrious cricketer closer to the level of respect and eminence he truly deserves.
Chanderpaul is Guyanese-born, and a former captain of the West Indies team; but more famously, he is known throughout Guyana as our own son of the soil, and due to his achievements, is an inspiration to young and upcoming cricketers in the diaspora and at home, as is he a model for those of us who value talent, dedication, and hard work.
That Chanderpaul is all of the above places him as a master in the cricketing firmament – now tell that, with its attendant, poignant irony, to the West Indies Cricket Board. For it will always rankle, both in the Caribbean, and among the diaspora abroad, that despite his talent, dedication, and industry, as one of the world’s top cricketers, Chanderpaul has been marginalised in second place, denied by the West Indies Cricket Board the well-deserved opportunity to be the leading Test scorer in West Indies cricket following an unwholesome call that led to his retirement from the game.
As we bitterly recall, Chanderpaul’s career concluded when the West Indies Cricket Board unceremoniously dropped him from the players’ contract in December, 2015, citing poor performances in one series against England in the Caribbean in 2015 – the decision by the Board made despite the West Indies team lacking strength in its middle order. Following the Board’s decision, Chanderpaul then retired from international cricket in January, 2016.
At the time of his retirement, Chanderpaul had scored 11,867 runs at an average of 51, with 30 centuries; he also scored 66 fifties. As a left-handed batsman, it was an unceremonious end to an illustrious and majestic career of 164 Tests, putting him in second place in the list of all-time West Indies run-scorers, leaving him a mere 86 runs short of Brian Lara’s record of 11,953 runs.
During his career at the wicket, Chanderpaul saw 519 Test partners return to the pavilion while he remained firmly anchored to the wicket, a survivability that marked his longevity and tenacity whenever he took the bat into his competent hands; as hard evidence of his durability, Chanderpaul’s Test statistics reveal he shared 771 different partnerships during his career.
To roll survivability and durability together, in 2002, Chanderpaul faced 1,051 deliveries against India without being dismissed, a feat which he endured for 1,513 minutes, over 25 hours at the wicket. We recall in May 2008, when Chanderpaul was hit on the back of the head by the ball from a Brett Lee bouncer, the blow causing him to fall onto the pitch: “I did not know where I was, my entire body went numb. I could not move my hands and I could not move my feet. However, I told myself if I left the field we would have been in a bad state,” Chanderpaul said later. Recovering from the blow, he went on to score 118, evidence he had the heart of a lion, yet remarkably preferring the fond nickname, “Tiger”.
The cricket website, espncricinfo.com, sums up what made Chanderpaul a mix of the outstanding and unorthodox: “The possessor of the crabbiest technique in world cricket, [he] proved there is life beyond the coaching handbook. He never seemed to play in the V, or off the front foot, but used soft hands, canny deflections, and a whiplash pull-shot to maintain a Test average of over 50… Chanderpaul showed that there were alternate ways to be consistent and prolific in Test cricket…”
We know in our hearts Chanderpaul truly deserves to be number one: receiving an Honorary Doctor of Letters from The University of the West Indies come October 25 brings him closer to this rarified space.