Tiger’s New Record
Shivnarine ‘Tiger’ Chanderpaul has, today, become the most capped West Indies Test cricketer, with 133 appearances. He sits at the top of one of the most illustrious lists of cricketers.
He debuted as a 19 year-old in 1994 (v England, in his hometown of Guyana), and has now gone past the legendary Courtney Walsh’s Test appearance record. Significantly, he has almost as many appearances (133) as the whole of the current West Indies team today (139). He was awarded the honour of presenting Test caps to the two new debutants (Kieran Powell and Kirk Edwards) in the team for the 3rd Test v India at Windsor Park, Dominica, a special occcasion for all of them and also Windsor Park, on its Test debut, becoming the 106th Test venue.
Meanwhile, Shiv’s 15 year-old son, Taignarine, is busy following in his footsteps at the current WICB Under 15 Festival, for Guyana Under 15′s.
To survive nearly twenty years at the top, and in a struggling team, says so much about the man’s resilience and discipline. He has been a warrior at the crease for West Indies.
Despite his frail physique, and some difficulties with injury, he has been a consistent beacon in the gloom these past few years as West Indies Cricket has lurched from series defeat, to series defeat. At one stage, for two consecutive years, he averaged over 100 in Test Cricket, a record only Sir Donald Bradman has managed previously.
When ‘Shiv’ scored his 7,000th Test run, he joined a list which includes Sir Garry Sobers, Clive Lloyd, Sir Vivian Richards, Desmond Haynes, Gordon Greenidge, and Brian Lara, as the only men to do so. He now has nearly 9,000 Test runs, and is second only to Brian Lara amongst West Indian batsmen. He will be remebered as one of the greats of West Indies Cricket.
Let’s hope he can crown his record with a Test century, and hopefully (for West Indies) a series-levelling Test victory.
