Biography

Shivnarine Chanderpaul has been the backbone of the West Indies batting line-up for more than a decade now. The first Indo-Caribbean to play 100 Tests for the West Indies, Chanderpaul made his debut way back in 1994. Since then, he has only grown from strength to strength.

Earlier, a victim of a floating bone in his feet, Chanderpaul found it difficult to convert his starts into big scores, which eventually showed a poor conversion-rate. But in late 2000, he got rid of this defect as the bone was removed and Chanderpaul set about writing a new chapter in his cricketing life. He scored centuries against India in 2001-02, followed by a successful home series against Australia. His form continued for the next couple of years, until he got into a lean patch on the England tour. But then there was the Champions Trophy, where his consistency helped a great deal for the team's title-win. Captaincy soon arrived and he welcomed it with open arms, but later resigned in 2006 to concentrate on his batting. His prolific scoring, though, continued to be his strength in the years that followed. In 2012, he opted to play for the shortest format of the game, representing Uva Next in the inaugural Sri Lanka Premier League. Shivnarine Chanderpaul played a match along with his son, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, a promising young talent from Guyana for a local team, Gandhi Youth Organisation in 2012.

The southpaw is a gritty customer at the crease and has a knack of preserving his wicket like it were his own baby. With an unorthodox batting stance, Chanderpaul also has the ability to marshal the tail-enders at will. His off-the-wall stance and technique makes it clear that self-coaching is also a great asset. He has no signs of backing down in spite of age not being on his side and after his 150th Test in 2013 which coincided with Sachin Tendullkar's 200th and last Test, Chanderpaul is that unfazed, untouched and yet strong rock by an ocean which remains strong as ever.