The Independent Voice of West Indies Cricket
West Indies T20 captain Darren Sammy has been retained for the upcoming International Cricket Council World T20 tournament in India in March.
The West Indies selectors, headed by Sir Clive Lloyd, are happy to keep Sammy for the premier tournament. The West Indies are currently ranked number one in the ICC rankings for T20s and Sammy has been the man in charge during this climb.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has congratulated Shivnarine Chanderpaul on a successful international career and has thanked him for his contribution to international cricket.
In his message, ICC Chief Executive David Richardson said: “Shivnarine Chanderpaul will be remembered as a reliable and extremely effective batsman. He was remarkable with the way he could adapt to his style, mixing solid defence and attack, to the demands of the situation.
“For nearly two decades, Shivnarine not only excelled with the bat but with his sporting attitude and quiet determination became a role model for millions of youngsters.”
Chanderpaul, 41, played 164 Tests, 268 One-Day Internationals and 22 Twenty20 Internationals for the West Indies from 1994 to 2015. During this period, he scored 20,988 international runs with 41 centuries and 125 half-centuries. He captained the West Indies in 14 Tests and 16 One-Day Internationals.
In 2008, Chanderpaul won the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Cricketer of the Year. In 2008 and 2012, he was named in the ICC Test Team of the Year, while in 2007, he was included in the ICC ODI Team of the Year.
Chanderpaul was also a member of the West Indies side, which won the ICC Champions Trophy in 2004.
Cricket fans in T&T will be happy with the news that mystery spinner Sunil Narine will be coming home for the Caribbean Premier League T20 tournament this year.
Narine who has been playing for the Guyana Amazon Warriors for the past three years, is set to be transferred to the T&T Knight Riders for the 2016 edition. Guardian Media understands that the move will take place within the next two weeks.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul was the bedrock of the West Indies middle order over 20 years. But the circumstances leading to his inevitable retirement weren't pleasant It is typical of the present state of West Indies cricket that Shivnarine Chanderpaul's retirement from the game he mastered in his peculiar style for 21 years, over 164 Tests and 268 ODIs, should have been inappropriately shrouded in controversy.
It was predicated by his omission from the home series against Australia last June. He was 40 then, and an average of 16.63 in his previous six Tests in South Africa and in the Caribbean against England, was a sign that the end was near. The selectors' decision showed no compassion.
The chairman of the panel, Clive Lloyd, the legendary captain during West Indies' prolonged period of domination in the 1980s and a fellow Guyanese, wrote to advise Chanderpaul that they had "decided to move on with younger players for the future".
"You have been a great player for the West Indies and have given excellent service to the game and to West Indies supporters all over the world," Lloyd added. "We hope that your skills will be utilised in the future and we wish you all the very best."
It was nothing less than a letter of termination, immediately and inevitably setting off enraged reaction. Unusually, cricket administrators found themselves on the same page as public opinion.