Shivnarine Chanderpaul excluded from West Indies first-class draft

Shivnarine Chanderpaul

St. John's (Antigua), June 18 (IANS) There is no sign of recently discarded Test batsman Shiv Chanderpaul among the 90 players entered for the draft of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Professional Cricket League (PCL), which is the first-class competition in the Caribbean.

Chanderpaul is conspicuously missing from Guyana Jaguars’ list of draft nominees. The veteran left-hander was controversially axed from the West Indies Test squad for the recent Australia tour, a move that is likely to end his career, reports CMC.

The 40-year-old averages 51 from 164 Tests and is just 88 runs shy of overtaking Brian Lara as the all-time leading run-scorer in West Indies cricket. He has scored 11,867 runs. Chanderpaul, however, can still play for Guyana at the discretion of the franchise on Pay-For-Play contract.

His son Tagenarine Chanderpaul, a left-handed top-order batsman, is among the list of draft nominees for the defending champions.

Each of the six franchises in the PCL will select five players - including a minimum of two from outside their home territory - to add to the 10 players which they have already retained for a minimum squad complement of 15.

Leeward Islands Hurricanes, who finished bottom of the table last season, will have the opening draft pick followed by Trinidad and Tobago Red Force, Jamaica Franchise, Windward Islands Volcanoes, Barbados Pride and Guyana Jaguars.