By Avenash Ramzan
Guyana and West Indies batting maestro Shivnarine Chanderpaul is thrilled to achieve another significant milestone in his outstanding career. Playing for Lancashire in the English County Championship Division One this week, the left-hander added another hundred to his bulging tally.
Playing against Yorkshire, the West Indies most capped Test batsman made 106, his second successive First-Class hundred after cracking 182 against Surrey in April.
The West Indies second highest Test run-getter behind Brian Lara completed his 75th First-Class ton, a milestone he was unsure of at the time. He became only the fourth Guyanese, after Alvin Kallicharan (87), Rohan Kanhai (86) and Clive Lloyd (79), to score 75 or more First-Class hundreds, and only the seventh West Indian to do so. The others are Sir Vivian Richards (114), Gordon Greenidge (92) and Sir Garfield Sobers (86).
“I wasn’t too sure where I was (in terms of the number of hundreds) because I was asked out there by the umpire how many it is- I wasn’t too sure. But whenever you get an opportunity to get in you have to make it count, because as a batter that’s what you need to do especially when your team is in a situation and you need to bat as long as you can,” Chanderpaul, who would be 43 in August, commented.
With 303 runs from just three innings so far for Lancashire this season, Chanderpaul is understandably elated that he has been able to make a contribution to the team’s cause. “Definitely you come out there you want to perform. You want to show that you still have it in you and you can go out there and do well, so I’m happy I was able to do that,” Chanderpaul said.
With a First-Class career spanning 26 years and counting, Chanderpaul is nowhere close to calling it a day, as according to the former West Indies captain, the desire to succeed with the bat is very much alive. “Well the passion, the hunger is still there and once you’re there and you’re still performing you just want to keep going,” he reckoned.
Chanderpaul has appeared in 360 First-Class games, scoring 26,397 runs at an average of 54.87. With a career-best of 303 not out for Guyana against Jamaica, he has also racked up 138 half-centuries to complement his 75 hundreds.
