West Indies should recall Chanderpaul

TIMES INT'L

Dear Editor,

West Indies, on tour in Australia for a three-test series, is without its most prolific run scorer Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who has been left out of the team because of underperformance. Yet, almost all the others on tour have performed worse than Chanderpaul in recent matches. The team lost its two warm-up games performing badly and the test performance is not expected to be any better.

If Chanderpaul were with the team, he would have strengthened the middle order and be a psychological boost to the youngsters to stand up and bat rather than cave in meekly. In addition, his presence would have put fear in opponents troubling them to make various errors to benefit WIndies players’ bowling and batting. Chanderpaul should be immediately recalled to the team to give it a chance down under.

In a news report in the Australian media, Cricket Australia has lamented the weak team touring Australia and absence of star player Chanderpaul on the squad for the three test matches. The name Shivnarine Chanderpal, popularly called Tiger or Chanders, has reverberated in ears of cricket lovers for over 20 years.

The current team on tour is one of the weakest to tour Down Under with no player having any reputation to trouble the Aussies or stand up strongly to their pace attack. Only Chanderpaul has the reputation to stand up to Australia; he has consistently done it time and again during several tours Down Under as well as in the West Indies.

But this is not to be as Clive Lloyd and West Indies management has decided to prematurely end Chander’s career. He wanted one more chance to end his career and pleaded for it. But Lloyd and his selectors said no; they don’t want Chanderpaul to break Brian Lara’s record as the highest run getter. It can’t be that he is not in the squad because of poor performance; no one else in the team has performed. He has a greater reputation than the entire team combined.

Attendance at the warm-up game against the Australia President’s eleven was very low and the match ended early with WIndies defeated by 10 wickets. Attendance will not improve by much in the tests without a star attraction to bring in the spectators.

Virtually no cricket analyst gives the WIndies any hope of winning during the tour and the team has started on a losing note. WIndies has not won a series in Australia since 1992.

 

Yours faithfully

Vishnu Bisram

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