The end of Shiv Chanderpaul?
CaribbeanCricket.com news analysisThe West Indies Cricket Board brought an inglorious end to the One Day International and Twenty20 career of legendary batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Now politics and the quest for power form a lethal combination which threatens to bring to a closure the Test career of Guyana’s finest modern batsman.
Cricket in Guyana is hurtling down a fatal precipice and the madness threatens to claim Shiv as its first and most notable victim.
With the two warring sides at each other’s jugulars and neither showing any signs of relenting the most immediate effect is that the GCB cannot provide a Guyana team for the Regional 4 Day.
The IMC is willing to step in and provide a Guyana team. The problem is that the WICB, following on the dictates of its parent body, the ICC, is unlikely to accept a team which was put together by government and political involvement. The WICB has already made it clear that it recognizes the GCB as the legitimate cricketing authority in Guyana and that it will not condone or sanction the Guyana government taking over the management of cricket in Guyana.
As far as the WICB is concerned, its hands are tied. If it recognizes the IMC and accepts a team provided by the IMC the WICB is likely to face severe reprimand and possible sanction from the global governing body, the ICC.
The ICC, following on from precedent set by FIFA and the IOC has begun its move to formalize the purification of cricket from political interference. The ICC had done this with regard to the political interference in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe especially. Little did it realise that the sternest and most immediate test will be in the West Indies and with its own Chairman of its Cricket Committee Clive Lloyd as one of the most prominent players.
That being the case the WICB will not accept the IMC’s version of the Guyana team in its First Class tournament. It means none of the Guyana players will play in the First Class tournament which starts early next month.
Based on the WICB’s own selection criteria, players are eligible to play Test cricket for the West Indies only if they play in the First Class tournament.
If it turns out, as in all likelihood it will, that Chanderpaul does not play in the First Class tournament because of this off field power struggle then he is unlikely to be considered for the West Indies Test team which will face Australia in a few months.
Chanderpaul is closing in on the finish line of his illustrious career but politics and power may just be conspiring to get him there faster than he and the fans would like. And certainly faster than the West Indies team itself can afford. It will be a sad and regrettable end to a career which already has not been given its fair due.