Dear Editor,
In response to Mr Oscar Ramjeet’s ‘Chanderpaul is not a slow scoring batsman‘ (SN, Nov 27), I completely agree and support his call for Chanders to be included in the one-day squad. He has been our most successful one-day cricketer just behind Brian Lara.
I was in Jamaica over the extended Thanksgiving weekend break from teaching. In the course of my traversing the island for a survey, I met many cricket enthusiasts. My accent gave away that I am a Guyanese. Conversation on Jamaican politics quickly turned to cricket. West Indies was on top in the second Test against Bangladesh. One chap said: “Yuh Guyanese boi doing well in Bangla making tons of runs.” Another said: “De ole man [referring to Chanders] can still bat hitting another hundred after the double in the first Test.” Yet another said: “Thank God for the Guyanese. Dem chaps good with bat and ball.” Another Jamaican brother with whom I had an extended discourse in my resort said: “Chanderpaul is the best batsman in the team. We got to get Sarwan back on the team. He is very good. Sammy can’t captain. He mekkin too many mistakes and he can’t bat. Sarwan will be a better captain if the management don’t want to give it to Gayle.” Another Jamaican stated: “Chanders is dependable and should be in the team for the one days. He can adjust and score fast when needed.”
Indeed Chanderpaul is a fast scorer in one-dayers. He did extremely well in one-dayers for us, opening the batting or batting three, four or five. He is the most reliable batsman. When the top of the order fails, he rescues us. I just don’t understand why the management unceremoniously dumped the man. I also echo the call for the return of Ramnaresh Sarwan to the line up. Both Guyanese batsmen have done us proud and will do the team a lot of good in one-dayers. I have every confidence that Chanderpaul will score a lot of fast runs for the team in one day competition.
Separately, in my informal survey in Jamaica, people don’t have much respect for politicians – worse in Jamaica than in Guyana or Trinidad. “Politicians are worse than thieves,” was the description of one person I interviewed and aptly described the views of many.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
