In a rare interview, Shivnarine Chanderpaul opens up about a lot of things in his life, including his reaction of Kevin Pietersen’s criticism:

There are few subjects that will shake Chanderpaul out of his private world, but Kevin Pietersen is one of them. The two batsmen are polar opposites – ­Pietersen loves the limelight, Chanderpaul detests “glamour”; Pietersen loves to take risks, Chanderpaul would rather stay at the crease. They meet again at Lord’s on Wednesday as England take on West Indies. At the mention of KP, ­Chanderpaul’s face grows very dark. On the recent West Indies tour Pietersen took a swipe at him, accusing him of “playing for himself”. It was a comment that Chanderpaul did not take lightly.

“You can’t assume or think someone’s just playing for themselves. I don’t know where he gets his stories from … I can’t be playing for myself when I’m in Trinidad trying to save a match. Scoring 140 and I’m playing for myself?” Chanderpaul’s expression is one of utter disgust.

Did Pietersen’s comment make him angry? “What he said just motivated me more. It definitely made me better at what I was doing. If people come at me I just want to make sure that I can be out there even longer. You get angry and you just want to grind somebody out there longer, that’s how I do my job.” ­Chanderpaul folds his arms, his outburst a rare moment of expression.

Posted in Shiv Chanderpaul, Captaincy, Interviews |