Shivnarine Chanderpaul

Shivnarine "Shiv" Chanderpaul CCH (born 16 August 1974) is a Guyanese cricket coach and former captain of the West Indies cricket team.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul was born to Indo-Guyanese parents Kamraj and Uma Chanderpaul in Unity Village, Guyana on 16 August 1974.

His father, Kamaraj Chanderpaul, helped to nurture his cricketing ability as a youngster.

His ancestors moved from India to the West Indies as indentured labours under the indentured labour system.

By the age of eight, Chanderpaul was playing for his village's cricket team, and would frequently bat for hours, being bowled at by various members of his family.

His father initially took him to the Everest club in Georgetown, but there was not a place for him at the club, and so he instead joined the Demerara Cricket Club.

He appeared for the club's under-16 side while only ten.

He was later given an opportunity at the Georgetown Cricket Club.

He made his first-class cricket debut for Guyana at the age of 17, facing Leeward Islands in the 1991–92 Red Stripe Cup.

He was run out for a duck in his first innings, but scored 90 runs in the second.

His List A debut followed a few days later, against Barbados, in which Chanderpaul did not get a chance to bat in a match with no result.

He achieved his maiden first-class century in April 1993, playing for the West Indies Board President's XI against the touring Pakistanis.

After taking four wickets in the Pakistanis' innings, Chanderpaul was one of three West Indians to score a century, scoring 140 runs, and remaining not out.

During the English summer of 1993, Chanderpaul travelled with the West Indies Under-19 cricket team to England.

He was the team's most successful batsman during the Test series, scoring 372 runs at a batting average of 124.00, including a score of 203 not out in the first Test, at Trent Bridge in Nottingham.

In the 1993–94 Red Stripe Cup, Chanderpaul was near the top of the batting averages, and, according to the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, he was a "contentious selection" for the subsequent Test series against England, in which he was picked as an all-rounder who could bowl leg breaks as well as bat.

He bowled 16 overs in England's first innings without taking a wicket, and scored 62 runs in the West Indies reply.

Chanderpaul played four Tests during his debut series, and was third amongst West Indian batsmen in terms of both runs scored and batting average, getting 288 runs at 57.60.

Over the following couple of years, Chanderpaul was in and out of the West Indian Test side, missing a visit by Australia altogether.

In his first 18 Test matches, Chanderpaul scored 1,232 runs at an average of 49.28, but despite scoring thirteen half-centuries, his highest score was 82; a Test century eluded him.

During this time, he achieved the highest first-class score of his career, in a 1995–96 Red Stripe Cup match against Jamaica.

In the first-innings of the match, which was eventually drawn, he scored 303 not out from 478 deliveries.

Early in his career, he was plagued by injuries, and was even dubbed a hypochondriac until he had a piece of floating bone removed from his foot in 2000.

Chanderpaul was a member of the West Indies team that won the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy, and in the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy Final, he had the highest contribution for West Indies with the bat, scoring 47 runs.

Chanderpaul captained West Indies in 14 Tests and 16 One Day Internationals.

A left-handed batsman, Chanderpaul is well known for his unorthodox batting stance, which has been described as crab-like.

In 2007, he subsequently joined Durham as an overseas player, and helped the club collect its first major honour by top-scoring in their 2007 Friends Provident Trophy final win.

He scored 20,000 runs in international cricket, and in 2008 he was named as one of the five Cricketers of the Year by the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, and awarded Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year) by the International Cricket Council.

He made his international debut at the age of 19, but did not score a century in international cricket for three years, prompting some criticism.

In March 2008, Chanderpaul caused some controversy when, after batting for Guyana on the first day of a Carib Beer Series match, he left to attend the WIPA awards, and did not arrive to play the following day.

He was 78 not out when he left the match, without notifying his team's manager or coach.

He was recorded as retiring out on the scorecard, and later returned on the third day.

At the ceremony, Chanderpaul was very successful, winning three awards as the international, Test and ODI cricketer of the year.

Chanderpaul was awarded the Cacique's Crown of Honour, the second highest award in the Order of Service of Guyana, in 2009.

Considered one of the greatest batsmen of his era, Chanderpaul is the 10th highest run scorer of all time in International cricket and the 8th highest in Test cricket.

After that he enjoyed consistent form, scoring over 11,000 runs in Test cricket and is the 8th highest run scorer of all time in the format.

Due to poor performances, Chanderpaul was dropped from the West Indies squad in 2015.

He announced his retirement from international cricket in 2016, without a farewell, at the age of 41.

He is currently serving as head coach of the USA senior women's and the USA Under-19 women's teams.

In November 2022, he was inducted to the ICC Hall of Fame.