Lloyd hails Chanderpaul’s achievement

By Rajiv Bisnauth
[dropcap]E[/dropcap]ighteen years after his debut and 140 Test matches later, Shivnarine Chanderpaul has become the 10th player in Test history and only the second West Indian to score 10,000 Test runs, an achievement that has been applauded by his fellow countryman and legendary West Indies captain Clive Lloyd.
Lloyd in an exclusive interview with Guyana Times Sport on Saturday, described Chanderpaul as a dedicated cricketer whose ongoing pursuit of excellence now appeared to be paying dividends.
“Persistence always pays off and I must congratulate Chanderpaul who has done extremely well for himself and West Indies cricket over the years,” Lloyd said.
“He has always been a hard worker and an individual who always wants to improve himself. At the end of the day hard work pays off and that is what we are now seeing with Chanderpaul.
Lloyd, who to date is considered the most the most successful West Indian captain, said that for any young aspiring cricketer, he/she should follow in the footsteps of Chanderpaul.
Lloyd, who represented the West Indies in 110 Test matches, is of the opinion that Chanderpaul’s omission from the ODI arena has made him more focused and energetic to play the longer format of the game.
Lloyd, who captained the West Indies to the first Cricket World Cup victory in 1975 – a feat he repeated under his leadership four years later in 1979, said that Chanderpaul does not have to prove anything to anybody in ODI cricket since he has done a “marvelous job” in that format.
Chanderpaul has played 286 ODI’s, his last been March 23, 2011 versus Pakistan in Dhaka. He has scored 8778 runs with an average of 41.60, including 11 hundreds and 59 fifties.
Chanderpaul has played most of his Test cricket in a declining West Indies team, where he is often left as the last man standing, which is testimony to his focus and application. His average of just over 50 places him among the best in the world at present.
10,000 Test match runs:

  1. Sachin Tendulkar (India) 15,470
  2. Ricky Ponting (Australia) 13,346
  3. Rahul Dravid (India) 13,288
  4. Jacques Kallis (South Africa) 12,379
  5. Brian Lara (West Indies) 11,953
  6. Allan Border (Australia) 11,174
  7. Steve Waugh (Australia) 10,927
  8. Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka) 10,440
  9. Sunil Gavaskar (India) 10,122
  10. Shivnarine Chanderpaul (West Indies) 10,055

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