What cricket means to West Indies (Part 12)

At the age of 30 and on his home ground Bourda, Shivnarine Chanderpaul became the 6th Guyanese and fourth player of East Indian decent to be appointed captain of the West Indies cricket team when a depleted regional side without star batsman Brian Lara, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chris Gayle took the field to battle South Africa in the 2005 home series.
Rohan Kanhai, Alvin Kalicharran and Derrick Murray were the other players of East Indian decent to captain the West Indies in test cricket.
The bitter row between the WICB, the WIPA, the new sponsors Digicel and past sponsors Cable &Wireless left the region’s game in tatters as seven C&W contracted players were deemed ineligible by the WICB due to a contract dispute.
Lara was later cleared to play since his signing of his C&W contract was done before the others and with the ‘blessing’ of the WICB.
Lara however indicated by letter to the WICB that if the other players were not made eligible he would feel uncomfortable playing. He was not selected for the first test in Guyana.

read the full article at Kaieteur News