Mon, Mar 31, '08
Shivnarine Chanderpaul might have picked up a host of honours at the West Indies Players' Association awards but in doing so he infuriated both his own team and his opponents in their ongoing Carib Beer Series match. Chanderpaul was unbeaten on 78 at stumps on the first day of Guyana's home game against Windward Islands when he departed for the awards ceremony in Trinidad.
However, neither Guyana's manager Carl Moore nor their coach Albert Smith was able to explain Chanderpaul's absence and he was deemed "retired out". Smith said it was disappointing the batsman had not discussed the situation with the team's management.
"He is our most dependable batsman and has done so much for West Indies cricket as a top-class batsman," Smith told CMC Sports. "But if he knew he was just using this game for some practice and would then leave the guys he should have at least informed me as the coach and maybe allowed one of the youngsters to play."
The situation so incensed the Windward Islands that when they started their innings after lunch they refused to let Guyana use a substitute fielder. The Windward Islands manager Lockhart Sebastien was furious at the seemingly blasé attitude to a first-class game.
"This is not a curry goat match," Sebastien said. "This is a first-class encounter and things like this are allowed to happen and we wonder why West Indies cricket is in the state that it is in.
"Chanderpaul told Devon [Smith] yesterday [Saturday] that he was here just to take a knock but we assumed he was joking. If he knew he had to leave then he should not have played and given one of the others youngsters a chance."
