By Charwayne Walker
Tagenarine Chanderpaul, son of legendary former Guyana and West Indies batting icon, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, continued a proud Guyanese tradition, following his 109 against Bangladesh ‘A’ at the Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium in St Lucia on Saturday.
He joined several of his compatriots, who also had the privilege of scoring centuries for the West Indies ‘B’ or ‘A’ teams in unofficial test matches.
The first Guyanese that had the distinct honor of registering a century for the West Indies ‘B’ team was Demerara Cricket Club’s (DCC) Andrew Augustus ‘Monster’ Lyght. The opener put Zimbabwe to the sword with a pugnacious 114 at the Harare Sports Club, Zimbabwe, on October 21, 1983.
Clayton Lambert then achieved the feat when he scored a masterful 219 at the same venue in October 1989. Strange enough, this historic knock by Lambert remains the only double century by a West Indian batsman in an ‘A’ team series.
Albion Sports Club’s Sewnarine Chattergoon added his name to the ‘A’ team centurion list with an unforgettable 107 against England ‘A’ at Gros Islet, St Lucia in 2005.
Sudesh Shaniram also scored a double century of 213, against Zimbabwe’s ‘B’ team in 1989 but that fixture was not granted first class status. Only DCC’s Andrew Lyght never went on to represent the West Indies at the international level
Featured below is a list of the other members of this illustrious group.
Georgetown Cricket Club’s (GCC) – Leon Johnson – 144 vs Sri Lanka – Warner Park, St. Kitts – 2013
Rose Hall Town Sports Club’s – Assad Fudadin – 145 vs Sri Lanka – Warner Park, St. Kitts – 2013
Albion Sport Club’s – Narsingh Deonarine – 110 vs Sri Lanka ‘A’ – Arnos Vale, St. Vincent and the Grenadines – 2013
GCC’s Vishal Singh – 161 vs Sri Lanka ‘A’ – Colombo, Sri Lanka – 2016
Romario Shepherd – 133 vs New Zealand ‘A’ – Bay Oval, New Zealand – December 2020
