Dear Editor,
The West Indies suffered a nightmare in the opening match against India when the A team bowlers routed the entire team for a mere 148 all-out within 40 overs. This is humiliating because it seems as if the Caribbean squad cannot bat the 50 overs with the present team now in India.
I would have thought that now that Clive Lloyd is the Chairman of the WI Selection Panel and former skipper Courtney Walsh is a selector, Shivnarine Chanderpaul would have been included in the ODI squad. Unfortunately this is not so. He should be there to prop up the side. In fact he should open the batting and the others bat around him.
It is amazing that a man who has done so well in the past in ODIs is completely out in the cold.
In his international career spanning two decades, Chanderpaul has been a relentless scorer of runs in all formats of the game. Specifically looking only at his ODI and List A record, he has an average of over 41, with 12 centuries, 90 additional scores of 50 or more and a total of 12,000 runs in List A matches.
In his 268 ODIs he batted 251 times and scored a total of 8.778 with 150 his highest. He was not out on 40 occasions. His average in ODI is over 41 runs. A review of the data shows that for the last five years when he was playing for the WI ODI team, Shiv scored more than 2,500 runs in 63 matches at an average of greater than 59 runs in 63 matches including a knock of 149 not out. The memorable performance included 16 boundaries and three sixes in only 139 balls, for a strike rate of 109, even as he batted through the entire innings.
Every WI cricket fan remembers his destruction of Chaminda Vaas in Trinidad when the ‘Tiger’ needing 10 runs off the last two deliveries of the game drove Vaas for a four, before flicking the final delivery over midwicket for a six, to seal a famous victory at Queen’s Park Oval. He is very aggressive against India. His average in his 13 matches in India is 57, but his average is 81 runs in recent games.
Chanderpaul is known for his consistency, and three world famous cricketers, Gibbs, Boycott and Dravid said that the West Indies ODI team should be built around him, and he should bat higher, perhaps opening the batting, as he truly is the glue that keeps them going forward. Dravid is amazed that Shiv is out of the ODI squad.
Come on WICB officials and selectors; it is not late. Send Shiv to join the team now. He scored a century two days ago in the Berbice and Demerara encounter following up his remarkable performance against Bangladesh.
Yours faithfully,
Oscar Ramjeet
