Voice of Guyana International

‘West Indies cricket is my life’
Vaneisa Baksh – CricInfo

To seek enlightenment from West Indies captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul, one must learn to interpret silence, action, body language and history. An awkwardly taciturn man, he taxes interviewers with monosyllables and rebuffs difficult questions with blunt assertions that he doesn’t have answers. There is some shyness – of the kind that freezes in the face of public relations – but not enough to paralyse personal ambition.

He has been privately described as something of a tyrant, obdurate and domineering to players, unwilling to allow anyone or anything to tamper with his dream to play cricket for the West Indies. Eleven years after making his Test debut at home in Georgetown; that is why Chanderpaul could take the helm of a team divided. Ignoring the implications of signing a dotted line that the majority of his team mates had refused to do, he accepted captaincy by default. His position, if Naipaul were to describe it: WIPA-SHMIPA, I have cricket to play.