Tony Cozier writes about Shiv Chanderpaul’s heroics yesterday in a tone reserved for very few:

In the midst of the [West Indies batting] breakdown, he took a shattering blow on the back of the helmet from a bouncer from Lee.

The contact reverberated around Sabina Park like a gunshot, a familiar sound in these parts. He instantly fell to the ground. The thousands in the stands watched in hushed anxiety. His wife, Amy, following the remarkable battle from the stands, shed emotional and understandable tears.

For a few minutes, that seemed an eternity, Chanderpaul lay still on the pitch, immediately surrounded by concerned opponents of whom Lee was the first on the scene. Dr Akshai Mansingh, the assigned West Indies Cricket Board doctor, and team physio CJ Clark rushed to the middle. A stretcher appeared.

The consensus among all except Chanderpaul was that he surely could not continue. He was on 86 and his faltering team needed him. It would take something more serious than a stunning blow to the cranium to extract him from the middle.

He got to his feet, shook his head and satisfied the good doctor that he was ready to continue. Right away he was again middling the ball, nudging and pushing, manipulating the strike away from Fidel Edwards, the No. 10. A crowd shocked into silence by the upsetting events of the previous hour again rediscovered its voice.

Every Chanderpaul run was cheered as if it was winning the match. So was every block by Edwards. When, finally, a straight drive off Stuart Clark carried Chanderpaul past his 18th Test hundred, every man, woman and child rose to acclaim a sporting performance they will remember for as long as their memories do. Amy was not the only one shedding tears. So were big men, without a hint of embarrassment.

Nor were the tears, and cheers, over. Chanderpaul’s heroics had clearly inspired his team as much as it re-energised their fellow West Indians in the ground. As Edwards and Daren Powell swept aside Australia’s vaunted top order with their searing pace and swing in the final half hour, the depression of the recent years of decline seemed in the distant past. It might or might not be a fleeting wonder. But, my goodness, it was spine tingling.

* The energy from Sabina Park was unbelievable. Really bummed I wasn’t there.

Mike King has no sympathy for Marlon Samuels:

A message had to be sent to Samuels and those who are foolhardy enough to commit any such transgression. Richie Richardson is saying the ban is too harsh, but I don’t quite agree, and I feel no compassion for any modern-day player providing information on match conditions or receiving benefits of any kind from people they hardly know, given the Hansie Cronje affair and the acts of Mark Waugh and Shane Warne.

This 24-month exile will test Samuels’ resolve and temperament. He must learn to accept that his scars are self-inflicted. Hopefully, he will use the time to straighten his right elbow and be more mindful whom he befriends on the Asian sub-continent.

ICC active CEO Dave Richardson responds to the two-year ban on Marlon Samuels:

“In terms of the punishment handed down, minimum penalties were agreed by the ICC Board, including all Full Members, and they reflect the seriousness of the issues at hand.

“Corruption is a serious matter, dealing with it effectively is fundamental to the integrity of our sport and this matter is a demonstration that its threat has not gone away.

“It is never pleasant when a player is banned but the process in arriving at this point has been an extremely thorough one and we hope the case serves as a reminder to players and officials to remain vigilant,” he added.

The ban includes Official Cricket (Tests, ODIs, T20Is, first-class matches and List A matches organized by or under the auspices of the ICC or its Members) and Unofficial Cricket (cricket within an ICC Member not falling into the above categories that is granted approval by either the ICC or the relevant Board).

Caribbean novelist George Lamming believes the delayed appointment of Sir Frank Worrell as West Indies captain was one of the most shameful acts in West Indies cricket history.

“That was one of the most humiliating things I can recall in West Indies cricket,” Lamming said. “The nearest I came to . . . I was crying. Coming back from London and going to Kensington, the West Indies were playing against Australia and I could see [Denis] Atkinson captaining a West Indies team. I could not understand how a Barbados crowd could have allowed that.”

The Barbados Nation hops aboard the Twenty20 freight train:

Originally seen as obscene and arrogant, the Twenty20 auctions and bidding for the world’s best players, by some of the leading industrialists and Bollywood stars, turned out to be big hits. Cricket is the quickest and biggest money spinner in India outside new-trend products and movies.

Cricket purists have to accept this situation and cannot begrudge a group of smart marketers and businessmen who had the conceptual presence of mind. If some other country was in the same situation with so many citizens madly in love with the game, they would have done the same.

With cricket in decline, players’ long-term earnings were in jeopardy. With Twenty20 cricket, there is no doubt that within a decade, the entire structure of the game could be changed beyond recognition.

Garfield Myers profiles Jamaica’s left-arm spinner Nikita Miller after his successful 2008 first class season:

Those knowledgeable cricket watchers who were at Sabina Park last week for the Challenge Final would have noticed something very different about Miller’s bowling. His tight, nagging control remained but he was also extracting far sharper turn and seemed more prepared to vary his flight - with additional loop - than used to be the case. Also, he utilised a more attacking line, eschewing - for the most part - the negative leg stump tactics for which he has been criticised in the past.

Will Luke profiles Chris Jordan, the Barbadian fast bowler now tearing it up for Surrey in England:

Jordan was born and raised in Barbados, educated at Combermere School - the same establishment who produced two of West Indies’ absolute finest, Sir Clyde Walcott and Sir Frank Worrell. “My coach at Combermere in Barbados mentioned there was a scholarship at Dulwich College and asked if I’d be interested and, of course, I said yes. I played in a game with Mr Athey [Dulwich coach and former England batsman Bill Athey] in a PRO AM tournament in Barbados which is conducted every November. I played more or less as a trialist, did quite well - didn’t take any wickets but I scored about 30. Two weeks later I was at Dulwich College.”

What is a West Indian fast bowler of obvious natural riches doing in England? The question is obvious; the answer even more obvious though vaguely depressing. Clive Lloyd, who spends a lot of his life in Britain but whose heart will always lie in the Caribbean, is clear. “If we [West Indies] had a proper youth academy, it wouldn’t have happened,” he told Cricinfo. “I saw him play against Lancashire last season and was quite impressed. He looks a very good prospect and can bat, bowl and field. I did try to get his phone number, and I spoke with the Surrey coach, but I’ve not been in regular contact with him [Jordan].”

The word at Surrey is Lloyd and other eminent West Indians are keen, if not desperate, to persuade Jordan back to his homeland. Surrey have tied him down for another two seasons, and though he seems to be revelling in the added responsibility of playing first-team cricket, he won’t be moved as to where his allegiances lie.

“It’s not a matter of coming to a decision really,” he says, with a hint of weariness. “I’m certainly not thinking about it - yet, anyway. When the bridge comes for me to cross it, I will have to make the correct decision. I have to take things day by day.”

* If he’s half as good as the hype, I hope he comes play for us. If he doesn’t, I don’t blame him.

West Indies captain Chris Gayle: “Sometime soon, Jerome Taylor is going to be ranked No. 1 in the world.”

Tony Cozier recognises Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s value to the West Indies team:

Whatever the reasons, Chanderpaul’s quality has always been undervalued, in spite of an impressive record in 14 years of international cricket, a sport that places great store on statistics. Even now, he is ranked by the ICC no higher than No. 8 on the list of contemporary Test batsmen, and as low as No. 10 on the ODI register.

Yet, in the year since the great Lara made his lamented exit, Chanderpaul has taken over the role as the rock of the West Indies batting with effectiveness that only the formidable George Headley, ‘Atlas’ of the formative decade of the 1930s, could match.

Tony Becca is fascinated by Sri Lanka’s latest mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis:

With a smile on his face as he caresses the ball before delivering it, Mendis bowls the off-break, he bowls the leg-break, he bowls the googly, he bowls the flipper, he bowls a straight delivery, he bowls them with different grips and different actions, he bowls them with a different trajectory and at a different pace, he disguises them brilliantly.

* Me too.

Tony Cozier balances the WICB’s grandiose planning with the depressing on-the-ground realities:

The sight of our premier fast bowler, with one of the most common surnames in the English language, running into the batsman with “Tayrol” written across his back during the first ODI on Thursday was demeaning – unless Jerome Taylor was now sponsored by the newest miracle cough mixture.

As he delivered, a fielder crouched at slip had the back of his top swathed in as much plaster as to treat an Iraq war veteran. He was, we were made to understand, Devon Smith who had to borrow Chattergoon’s shirt because his was not ready. And this for a match programmed for months.

Later, as play was about to resume after lunch, there was a delay of a quarter-hour while someone tried to get the Duckworth-Lewis details for match referee Chris Broad.

And so on and so forth, ad infinitum.

West Indies head coach John Dyson says the search for spinners in the Caribbean will go beyond Amit Jaggernauth and Sulieman Benn. He also has his eyes on Jamaica’s left-arm orthodox spinner Nikita Miller.

Scyld Berry: Ask this question about every cricketer you admire: did he leave the teams he represented stronger than when he started? [Viv] Richards did so, which is why he won my vote ahead of Sir Garfield Sobers as one of the Five Wisden Cricketers of the Century

Former England captain Mike Atherton: “Only one reason prevents me from placing Lara at the apex of modern West Indian batsmen. Against extreme pace he got hit too often, and he could seem extraordinarily jumpy at the crease. I’ve often wondered what kind of effect removing helmets would have on modern-day players, a hypothetical that doesn’t apply to Vivian Richards.”

Wow. Great placement even from that young age.