India fans want decent send-off for Chanderpaul
January 5, 2016 By
Dear Editor,
In my travels in India for the holidays, a cricket crazed nation, fans queried me why Shivnarine Chanderpaul has been treated so badly by West Indies management and selection committee. They love his obdurate batting style and describe him as the mainstay of the West Indies batting line up. Indians adore Chanderpaul as they do Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Sunil Narine and a few other West Indians.
They feel Chanderpaul should be allowed to retire from the game on his own time (which should be soon) and be given a decent send off in much the same way that Sachin Tendulkar (India’s superstar) was allowed to play his last test on his own term on home soil in front of a home crowd. But Clive Lloyd, the head of the selection committee will not allow Chanderpaul to play his final test at home or even away. Lloyd has called an end to Chanderpaul’s career although management hinted it was not opposed to Chanderpaul continuing to play in two tests played at home last June.
West Indies missed Chanderpaul on the tour to Australia. The team was humiliated at Hobart. And during the second test match played at Melbourne Cricket Ground, recently, the Aussie commentators asked Chairman of Selectors Clive Lloyd about Captain Jason Holder’s ability to lead the team.
The commentators noted some of the blatant errors Holder made during the first and second test and during the two warm-up matches.
Lloyd’s response was there are no senior players on the squad to help guide the young captain address West Indies woes on the field and in the bowling and batting departments. But it was Lloyd who was primarily responsible for selecting the team, and as such, he must accept blame for the team’s poor performance.
Lloyd left out experienced players, saying he wants a young team. He said there is no room for an experienced reliable batsman and former skipper like Shivnarine Chanderpaul who rescued the team on countless occasions.
Lloyd has made his intention clear that he does not want Chanderpaul to break Brian Lara’s record of scoring the most runs by a West Indian. Chanderpaul needs less than 100 runs to best Lara’s score. Lara said he has no objection to Chanderpaul breaking the record. But Lloyd would have none of it. Lloyd prefers West Indies be humiliated than bring back the experienced Chanderpaul to give some respect to the squad. Chanderpaul would have strengthened the batting and give confidence to the overall squad to fight rather than submit meekly as it has done so far since Chanderpaul has been excluded from the squad.
The batsmen made so many mistakes and there were so many fielding errors that the team could have used Chanderpaul’s talent to boost its overall performance.
Lloyd should be removed since he has identified the problem facing the team but has refused to resolve it.
Fans in India feel West Indies should bring back Chanderpaul! They say he would have done much better than the others who have consistently failed the team.
There are West Indian critics who feel Chanderpaul’s feet motions are slow and he gets out of the box late to face fast deliveries. But the others have moved even slower than Chanderpaul.
What does that say about youth selection? The team’s fielding from the youths have been pathetic. The old men would have done better than these bunch of youths.
And in batting, Chanderpaul would have done no worse. It is time for Lloyd to rethink his position on Chanderpaul and on his own presence in the selection committee since his team has performed abysmally.
He should accept responsibility for failure and resign.
West Indies management and selectors should listen to fans around the globe and bring back the great Chanderpaul so he can end his career with dignity and honour.
Yours truly,
Vishnu Bisram
