Former West Indies batting coach, Toby Radford, has thrown his support behind Guyanese coach, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, to be the next coach of the West Indies senior men’s team.
The former first-class player shared his comments on the Mason and Guest radio programme earlier this week shortly after former Test opener, Philo Wallace declared that he was not in support of Chanderpaul taking up the role on the very show.
According to Radford, “I’m one of Shiv’s biggest fans and I’m often told about Shiv and what he brought to the game as a player. He was a very hard worker and meticulous in his preparation, a lot of the things that I think he would instill as a coach with a lot of the younger players. I think he would give that who’s been there, done it, he was number-one in the world for a period of time, top test player who has played all around the world. I think he would bring a huge amount to it.”
Radford continued, “He is pretty new to coaching. I think he is still probably finding his feet in coaching, he is having relative success and I would [make him head coach] I think he would bring a lot to it and I think the people he will bring around him because as a head coach it’s different than going in as a specialist coach so I think he would do a very good job. I think he has a lot to offer, he is very determined, a hard working solid character and I have always enjoyed having conversations with him as a player and coach.”
In recent times, Chanderpaul has made the rounds as a coach, most notably with the Jamaica Tallawahs securing the Caribbean Premier League title last year as well as serving as the head coach for USA cricket’s senior women and under-19s.
Chanderpaul, 48, joined USA Cricket in July. He played a record 164 Tests for West Indies, and also featured in 268 ODIs and 22 T20Is. He also is the second-highest run-scorer in Test cricket for the West Indies with 11,867 runs.
