By Edwin Seeraj

WITH young Tajenarine Chanderpaul fashioning 119 and 56 for the touring West Indians against the Australian Prime Minister’s XI in the recently drawn encounter, he has further enhanced his chances of making his Test debut against the Aussies in the first match of the two-game series at Perth on Tuesday evening (ECT).

Taje and his father Shiv ‘Tiger’ Chanderpaul are set to become the fourth father-and-son combination to play Test cricket for the West Indies in its rich history involving 566 matches spanning a period of 94 years.

They will also join a select band of just over 50 such pairings that have done so around the world since the inaugural Test in Melbourne in 1877.
The Scotts from Jamaica – Oscar Charles ‘Tommy’ Scott and his son Alfred Homer Patrick Scott – are the first father-and-son duo to have done so for the West Indies.

The elder Scott was primarily a right-arm leg-spinner who made his first-class debut at 18 for Jamaica against the visiting English team in 1910 and promptly claimed a match haul of 11 for 138. He went on to play eight Test matches including two in England in 1928 when the West Indies contested an international series for the first time.

He then played in the drawn ‘timeless’ Sabina Park Test against the visiting Englishmen in 1930 ending with match figures of nine for 374 and having the dubious distinction of being the bowler conceding most runs in a Test.

Tommy Scott played his last five Tests on West Indies first tour to Australia in 1930-31 and closed off his career at the top-level with 22 wickets at 42.04 runs each.
Like his father, Alfred Scott was a right-arm leg-spinner who made his first-class debut at an early age. At 18 and in only his third first-class game for Jamaica against the touring Indians in 1953, he claimed seven wickets and outperformed the seasoned Alf Valentine.

He was subsequently selected along with Valentine for the fifth Test in Kingston but on a batter’s paradise on which over 1 500 runs were scored (inclusive of seven centuries) and 34 wickets fell, he ended wicketless with figures of nought for 144 off 44 overs and was relegated to the ‘One Match Wonder’ status.
The second father-and-son pair to ‘don whites’ for the West Indies are the great George ‘Atlas’ Headley and his son, Ron.

George Headley was a right-handed top-order batter of the highest possible calibre who was the West Indies lynchpin over his 22 Tests and whose distinguished career was unceremoniously interrupted during the first World War.

Among father Headley’s numerous feats are a debut ton against England in Barbados in 1930, twin tons at Bourda versus England in 1930 to secure the West Indies first Test match win, separate hundreds in the Lord’s Test in 1939, an exceptional average of 60.83 runs per innings and a phenomenal average of 95.75 per innings in the five matches the Windies won when he played.

The son, Ron, was a left-handed opener who moved to England as a boy and had a distinguished career for Worcestershire in English county cricket from 1958 to 1974 playing a pivotal role in his team winning consecutive championship titles in 1964 and 1965.

Ron got his opportunity to play two Tests and an ODI for the West Indies in England in 1973 when Stephen Camacho, who was set to open the batting with Roy Fredericks, was injured after being struck in the face by a young Andy Roberts in the West Indies/Hampshire duel on the eve of the first Test.

It should be noted that Ron was not a part of the initial squad and being summoned hurriedly to the fold to play at the highest level probably found him unprepared.
At age 34, he was part of the first two of the three Tests at the Oval and Birmingham but with scores of 8, 42, 1 and 11 that was his tenure at the top.

Let’s not forget that Ron’s son, Dean (George’s grandson), has also played 15 Tests and 13 ODIs for England between 1996 and 1999 becoming the first three-generation set of cricketers to grace the Test stage. Jahangir Khan (4 Tests for India in the 1930s), Majid Khan (63 Tests for Pakistan, 1964-1983) and Bazid Khan (1 Test for Pakistan against the WI, 2005) is the only other father, son and grandson combination to contest Test matches.

Everton Weekes and his son David Murray (who died in Barbados yesterday) are the third father-son mates to represent the regional side in Tests.
Weekes was a member of the famous ‘3Ws Club’- Frank Worrell and Clyde Walcott were the others who dominated the middle-order batting in the 1940s and 1950s. He was a right-handed, fleet-footed, technically correct batter who scored 4 455 runs at an average of 58.61 in 48 Tests.

He cracked 15 centuries including five in consecutive Test innings against England and India in 1948-49 and was homing in on a sixth at Madras (now Chennai) when from all reports he was controversially dismissed ‘run-out’ for 90. Some 74 years on his record is still intact.

Weekes’ son, David Murray, was a competent wicketkeeper and more than useful batter who had a formidable first-class career primarily with Barbados raising the bar to play for the West indies in 19 Tests and 10 ODIs between 1973 and 1982.

Cricketing pundits suggest that he would have played many more matches at the international level but for ‘personal issues’ and the presence of the Trinidad gloveman – his namesake – Deryck Murray whose time at the top paralleled his own.

Murray aggregated 601 Test runs at 21.46 runs per innings with a highest score of 84 against India at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai and effected 62 dismissals – 57 catches and five stumpings – in a shortened sojourn that ended when he went on a ‘rebel tour’ to South Africa in 1982.

As the countdown begins for the start of the first Test let’s be reminded that Shiv has had an illustrious international career which started as a teenager in 1994 and ended 21 years later after being capped 164 times in Tests, 268 times in ODIs and 22 times in T20 Internationals.

He has compiled a staggering 11 867 runs in Tests at a remarkable average of 51.37 runs per innings while registering 30 centuries in a truly incredible effort.
The cricketing world is ready for this signal moment; the West Indian fans are overwhelmingly excited; the Chanderpauls are no doubt ecstatic.

YES! IT’S ALL SET FOR TAJE AND TIGER’S TURN!