After a short but highly successful stint with Warwickshire in the Division One County Championship in England, the region’s premier batsman, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, has returned home, fully focused on representing Guyana in next month’s West Indies Cricket Board’s (WICB) Regional Super50 and winning back his spot in all three formats at international level.
Of recent, the experienced Chanderpaul has been overlooked by the WICB selectors for the limited-over versions (50-over and T20) of the game, but he has been a permanent fixture in the Test team.
The veteran left-hander is now keen on doing well for hosts Guyana in the Regional tournament, to be staged from October 18 to 29.
“I’m available for all formats of the game. I had a good stint with Warwickshire and I’m now looking forward to the Regional one- day competition,” the 2008 ICC Cricketer-of-the-Year told this publication on Sunday.
With 133 Tests, 268 ODIs, and 22 T20 appearances, and a combined total of 18,488 runs, Chanderpaul is by far the most experienced and successful West Indies batsman of the current generation.
And so it came as no surprise that he reeled off three huge hundreds in a total of 539 runs in seven innings for Warwickshire in the Division One Championship.
His exploits towards the tailend of the season spurred the county to a second-place finish behind champions Lancashire – Chanderpaul’s former county.
The former West Indies captain had the highest average by a Warwickshire batsman – 89.93, with a highest score of 193, with 171 and 110 being his other three-figure scores. England batsman Ian Bell was the only other Warwickshire batsman to average over 50.
Lancashire finished on 246 points, while Warwickshire ended on 235, both from 16 matches.
“The guys did well; unfortunately, our final match with Hampshire (who finished bottom of the table with 127 points) ended in a draw, while Lancashire won their game against Somerset to take the title,” Chanderpaul, who also played one Pro40 match, related.
“But the cricket was played in good spirit. No one questioned you about fitness and so on, and everyone knew their role in the team set-up, and they all stepped up when it was needed.” It was Warwickshire’s best performance in recent years. They also won the Division Two championship this year.
Meanwhile, Chanderpaul has offered congratulations to West Indians Curtly Ambrose, Devendra Bishoo and Stefanie Taylor on their success at the ICC awards. Ambrose was inducted in the ICC’s Hall of Fame, while Bishoo was voted Emerging Player-of-the-Year and Taylor won the Woman-Cricketer-of-the-Year award.
“I want to specifically wish Bishoo and Taylor well in their careers. [I] hope this is the start of great things to come for both of them,” Chanderpaul said.
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