THE Government of Guyana at Wednesday’s post-Cabinet press briefing announced that retired West Indies batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul will be honoured during the country’s ‘Golden Jubilee’ celebration in May. After more than two decades and 164 Test matches, Chanderpaul, one of West Indies’ finest batsmen, has retired.
Chanderpaul finishes as the second-highest West Indian Test run-maker, 86 runs short of Brian Lara: Lara got 11 953 (11 912 for West Indies and the rest for the ICC World XI), while Chanderpaul scored 11 867 (all for West Indies).

Chanderpaul, 41, had not played for West Indies since May 2015; the West Indies selectors dropped him after a weak performance during the three-Test series at home against England.
While Chanderpaul entertained hopes of a comeback, the selection panel, headed by former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd, had provided enough hints that they had moved past Chanderpaul as they ignored him for the various series in the last eight months. Chanderpaul was also not part of the 15 players handed annual contracts by the WICB in December.
“The unanimous view was that this is an outstanding son of the soil,” said Raphael Trotman, Minister of Natural Resources while addressing the local media.
Trotman highlighted that while there’s an avenue named after the famed Guyanese cricketer (Shiv Chanderpaul Drive), who also picked up a National Award, the Government of Guyana believes that his contribution to West Indies cricket should be commemorated.
“The Minister of Education was asked to do a review of his achievements and see in what other ways the Government of Guyana could recognise this inspirational son,” Trotman said.
Chanderpaul is only the second modern-day player, after Sachin Tendulkar, whose career stretched over two decades. He might not have been as celebrated and revered as Tendulkar, but Chanderpaul had worked hard, quietly, to become one of the strongest pillars of West Indies cricket.
He scored 30 Test centuries and averaged 51.37 in the format, and held numerous records that are likely to last for a long time, including batting for more than 25 hours in a Test series between dismissals – he did it against India in 2002, when he faced 1 050 consecutive deliveries without losing his wicket.
Unorthodox stance and great determination aside, Chanderpaul never allowed his emotions to overpower him or overflow on the outside. Perhaps that reserved nature of his explained why he led West Indies only 14 times in Tests.
‘Shiv’, as he is also known, played 268 ODIs for 8 778 runs at 41.60 (the last of which was during the 2011 World Cup), and 22 T20Is.