SINCE THE START of the WICB PCL Digicel Sportsmax Regional 4-Day Competition and continuing into the WICB Regional Super50 there have been many calls and questions asked by senior sports journalists for the recall of Shivnarine Chanderpaul to the West Indies Test team.
As my friend Smokey would say I may be wrong as I usually am but to the best of my belief Chanderpaul officially retired from Test cricket to enable his participation in Masters Champions League in Sharjah in 2016.
One criterion for eligibility to play in that league was that the aspiring participant had to have officially retired from Test cricket.
I, therefore, cannot understand why there has been this sudden clamour for his recall to the Test team. Are the sports journalists suggesting that Chanderpaul come out of retirement simply because he has continued to make runs in the regional tournaments?
I am a great fan of the “Tiger” but I believe that the selectors made the correct decision when they decided to omit him from the regional team. I also believe that Shiv made the right decision when he continued to play at the regional level to lead by example and guide the younger players.
Too many of our players leave the regional scene on retirement from the international game and that creates a void in the regional game. I do not know if they consider the financial returns not worth it but in earlier years retirees from Test cricket continued to play not only at the regional but also at the domestic level, thereby allowing young cricketers to benefit from their experience.
Cricket fans will recall the Eleventh Commandment of West Indies cricket ‘Dowe shalt not bowl’, which Seymour Nurse handed down to Uton Dowe of Jamaica at Kensington Oval in 1972, three years after his retirement from Test cricket. Barbados reached the target of 178 in 32 overs without losing a wicket.
Cricket needs such players and their performances do not indicate that they should be recalled. The journalists are doing Chanderpaul an injustice with their constant comments, especially to him, about a return to Test cricket.
He has retired as one of the greatest cricketers ever produced by the West Indies and his image should not be tarnished by comments whose only aim can be to cause embarrassment to him, the selectors and the West Indies Cricket Board.
Let the “Tiger” continue to roar.
– ROLLINS HOWARD
