Shivnarine Chanderpaul's debut in International Cricket
Shivnarine Chanderpaul made his debut for the West Indies when he was just 19 years old. Almost twenty one years later, he is still playing Test Cricket for his country and is his team’s most reliable batsman apart from being the oldest active cricketer in the world. His first match was against England at his hometown. He showed the world why the selectors gambled with an youngster as he made a composed half century in his very first outing. He put on a century stand with Brian Lara and finally got out for 62 runs made from 135 deliveries. England meekly surrendered and hence the windies picked up an innnings victory.
A few months later after turning 20, he made his ODI debut against India alongwith Cameron Cuffy and Stuart Williams, but unfortunately did not get an opportunity to bat. His team picked up a huge victory though. He played his final one day match in the 2011 World Cup against Pakistan and ended his career with more than 8000 runs at an impressive average of 41. Despite being labelled as a Test specialist, Chanderpaul did well in the 50 over format scoring crucial runs for his team and also he has had success even as a finisher at times (once hit a six off the last ball to win a game).
Recently he turned 40 but has shown no intentions to retire from Tests. Some people are even predicting that one day we could see his son batting alongwith him as he has been making a steady progress in the domestic circuit. For someone who considers patience as the key to success, he once blasted a 69 ball Test century and also scored a hundred during the highest successful run chase in Test history, with Australia being the opposition on both occasions. He became only the second West Indian batsman to cross the 10,000 run mark in the format after Lara and could easily surpass him by the time he finishes his career. Over the years when the team has been in decline, he has been a rock and has seen the most number of wickets fall at the other end while batting. A rare cricketer whose career needs to be celebrated forever.