Shivnarine Chanderpaul

[ohtani's jacket]

When I think of the fine player Shivnarine Chanderpaul has developed into, I wonder, did anyone here see it coming? If so, what was it about his batting that clued you in?

[roseboy64]

Reliability.

[Jono]

I remember the Shiv vs. Damien Martyn thread around 2-3 years ago, one of the best cricket chat discussions I've ever read here.

I think if we were to do that now, Shiv would take it out, whereas I believe the concensus was that Martyn was the better player in 2005 (following his awesome 2004).

[Isura]

I'd like to see him bat at 3. His average will surely go down a bit since he has to face the new ball more often. But WI are usually 30-3 or so anyways, so maybe not.

[bond21]

Chanderpaul goes in so early I assumed he was an opening batsman.

Martyn was still better.

[iamdavid]

He's always been a good player.

I remember back in about 2000 there were whispers that he wasnt converting enough of his starts to hundreds (had something like 20 fifties and only one of two hundreds) and wasnt really getting the best out of himself.
However he was always one of the 'players to watch'.

Playing with Lara for so long probably robbed him of much of the credit he deserves, and he's a better player than Martyn was, incase theres still any debate.

[Lillian Thomson]

Originally Posted by ohtani's jacket

When I think of the fine player Shivnarine Chanderpaul has developed into, I wonder, did anyone here see it coming? If so, what was it about his batting that clued you in?

It was obvious from the first series against England that he was going to be around a long time and score a lot of runs. He wasn't the flamboyant style of batsman that the West Indies often produce but he was very difficult to get out.

[Richard]

Chanderpaul's an excellent batsman, and I thought that the first time I watched him seriously, which was 2000. He'd already been excellent for 6 years by then, though.

[pasag]

He really is so, so good.

Wonder where he fits in in all time West Indies XI? Could he crack the second XI perhaps?

[Richard]

Hmm...
Hunte
Greenidge
Headley
Sobers
Lara
Richards
Walcott

Fredericks
Haynes
Kallicherran
Weekes
Worrell
Lloyd
Dujon

Perhaps Third XI more like TBH...
Rae
Stollmeyer
Nurse
Kanhai
Chanderpaul
Richardson
Deryck Murray

[Perm]

Just goes to show how many exceedingly talented batsmen the West Indies have produced over the years.

[Perm]

Originally Posted by bond21

Martyn was still better.

Agreed.

[Prince EWS]

Originally Posted by ohtani's jacket

When I think of the fine player Shivnarine Chanderpaul has developed into, I wonder, did anyone here see it coming? If so, what was it about his batting that clued you in?

I suppose it depends on what you mean. He's really had two breakthrough years in his career - in 2002 when he finally (after 8 years - by god he's been around a while now, hasn't he?!) started to suggest he was more than just a middling to good Test batsman by tripling his number of Test centuries, and in 2007 when he went a step even beyond that and announced himself as one of the best batsmen in the world.

I can't say I predicted that first one, although many probably would have - purely because I hadn't really followed his career as it was going until about 2005. I'd argue though that it was then he proved himself as a "fine player" as you say in your post, and not last year when he really started to go on with it.

As for his exploits of late.. whilst I certainly didn't expect him to do quite as well as he has, I definitely thought he'd lift his game a notch with the retirement of Lara. He has just always seemed that sort of character to me - the direr the situation, the greater the responsibility and the tougher the circumstances, the more he seems to lift. This is why his failed captaincy stint was a bit of a shock to me, but equally why I'm perhaps not as shocked at his recent runfest as some. He's just so calm, so reliable so tempermentally at ease these days. The fact that he has immense batting talent obviously helps, but we all knew that years ago.

[Arjun]

The one thing I find most remarkable about Chanderpaul is that he's the stick-around-and-defend batsman who can hang around for a long time, thus building a partnership that counts.

Yet, he doesn't sacrifice his West Indian Hitting Ability and can score in a burst when needed. Clean hitter.

[andruid]

Shiv is my spare God lol