Shiv Chanderpauls Batting & Captaincy

[Rob.]

His captaincy may not of set the world alight or impressed many people so far, but his batting has been revolutionised by the captaincy.

This last time last year Chanderpaul looked a very average player, he had a poor series against England in West Indies, then a poor Natwest Series. He had a decent test series against England in England, but didn't make many people sit down and take notice really. But now, he averages 47.86 in test cricket with 14 centuries and is making big contributions to Windies totals in both forms of the game.


This beggars the question : Why do some batsman flurrish under captaincy, and some go downhill?


I think Michael Vaughan is a very good example, the captaincy has had an obvious affect on his batting. I believe it is a mental thing more than anything, wanting to lead from the front as well as wanting to get back to that form of the last Ashes tour. That once trademark calmness about Vaughans batting seems to of gone out of the window, until he gets 30 odd on the board at least. Overall, Vaughan hasn't been able to cope with these mental challenges. Wheras with Chanderpaul he seems to be coping much better with the 'leading from the front' mental challenge, one thing helping Shiv though is the fact he doesn't have them past glories that Vaughan has and the huge expectation when he comes out to bat.


Its a tricky question to answer really, there are allsorts of theories you could go through.

Anyway, Shivs captaincy. Well, I get the impression that the Windies cricket team is being run from the dressing room by Bennett King. Shiv never seems to be giving out instructions to players, its as if everything is planned in the dressing room and Shiv has limited authority. This for me is not the way to run a cricket team. I don't know about you. We have seen a similar happening happen recently with John Bracewell who is in most peoples opinion undermining Stephen Flemings authority, and the Kiwis have frankly been very average in the last year, especially in test cricket, although you may argue that the bowling attack bar Vettori is not up to standard.

As far as who should captain the Windies side, Sarwan is the man for me. His captaincy when I have seen it has always impressed me because of its attacking nature. He was vice captain before, I can't understand why Chanderpaul and Browne are now both above him in the pecking order, especially considering Brownes days are numbered.

Several discussion points in there, what do you think?

And, finally, just for your information, Chanderpauls impressive stats :

Tests

Average : 47.86, 100s : 14, 50s : 34, Runs : 5887, NO's : 20

ODI's

Average : 36.53, 100s : 3, 50s : 34, Runs : 5188, NO's : 21

Incidentally he also has a very good first class average of 52.95, with a top score of 303*

Phew, thats a lot of effort into a post from an admin of a rival board!

[Andy Mellon]

You make some interesting points RB.

Firstly, at the moment I would argue West Indies need some stability for a while to help them rebuild. Hence, I've voted for Chanderpaul as captain for this very reason. Secondly, as you suggest, he's performing quite well with the bat despite the responsibility. Its always good for a team when the captain can lead from the front. We don't know what impact the captaincy would have on Sarwan. Hence, I think sticking with Chanderpaul and almost adopting a 'wait and see' strategy would be good in the short to medium term.

[Richard Jenkins]

The burden of captaincy is a hard one; Everyone expects you to fill your boots/take a hatfull of wickets/catches /stumpings every time you play, and to lead from the front and of course to win. I think chanderpaul is a wonderful cricketer, with his eye patches and crab like run, he rreallly is a class act; i don't know what he's like at motivating teams, he certainly seems to have a rag tag bag (no offence meant to WI fans here) to command and I think the nucleus of the squad has talenbt and potential. However, some of the decisions made by the WI board leave me scratching my head!
Chanderpaul has always been a class act, and I've felt he should have been captain for the last 5 years. Lara is a class player, but his time has been .
Often captaincy means performance goes down. However, it can go up, as Chanderpaul shows.

West indies cricket , like cricket in other nations is suffering from competition from other sports and lack of interest in the game. Chanderpaul can lny help improve interest. I'd keep him for at least a season of tests.

[Paoli]

Football is taking the Windies by storm. A bloke I was speaking to, a while ago now, but he said. "When Jamaica play Trinidad in football, you get 25,000. When West Indies play another country, you'll get 15-20,000"

Shiv Chanderpaul. Top class batsman, he has come of age in the last year. Captain? The right choice.

[Ninjaman]

Originally Posted by Paoli69

Football is taking the Windies by storm. A bloke I was speaking to, a while ago now, but he said. "When Jamaica play Trinidad in football, you get 25,000. When West Indies play another country, you'll get 15-20,000"

Shiv Chanderpaul. Top class batsman, he has come of age in the last year. Captain? The right choice.

Football is not taking the WI by storm. Football has always been a well loved sport in the Caribbean.

Back in the 70s and 80s, thousands would go to see Cornwall College vs Ruseas or Jamaica College vs Kingston College at schoolboy football. Those schools are high schools.

I am Jamaican and can remember playing our rival school at football on a Wednesday at 3pm.

By 12 midday, the field had at least 5,000 waiting to see the game.

There are millions in the Caribbean and many sports can flourish not just cricket.

As for Chanderpaul, I highly doubt his captaincy has anything to do with his batting form. It surely strengthened his resolve to do better, but his last series before captaincy he averaged 73 vs England.

He is now 30 and one of the senior batsmen in the world. He is now converting those 50s into 100s which he failed to do as regularly in the earlier days.

Let us remember, he was dropped from the Test where Lara scored 400 for lethargy!!

It is quite clear he is not a leader of men and will most definitely have to grow into it. At times he is still reactive and not proactive but he is limited by the resources at his disposal.

At the end of the ICC Champions Trophy on their return to the WI, Lara said that Shiv was the best batsman in the WI.

Now whilst that is not true as Lara is still the best in the world, he said that to elevate Shiv to his rightful position i.e. one of the top batsmen in the world who should be judged as such and whose performances should not really be a surprise to anyone.

In the last 2 years, he has averaged just under 60 btw.

[vvvrulz]

Of them all, Shiv is the most resposible and mature-minded of the bunch. He without doubt is the rightful leader for the West Indies, with Brian Lara in there simply as a batsman.

[Zainub]

People always criticize the less inventive captains in test cricket, the Inzis and Chanderpauls that is, of not being good motivators, yet both have scored substantial amount of runs since taking over as skipper - as the saying goes there is no better captain then one that leads by example - by scoring lots of runs you do set a good example. Interestingly, all the others so called inventive captains have suffered blips in their form while being captain, at least for a period

(Fleming has been out of form by and large in the two seasons or so, especially against Aus) (Ponting was very quite up until the time he scored that double against Pakistan, since then he's taken off) (Smith also went through a quite period, in the sub-continent namely, but by and large he's also come back with a bang after starting with a bang and that quite period in between) ...coming to think of it, you right, it might well all be a mental thing, which after a small period of time every one adjusts to.

With regards to Shiv in particular, I don't think there's any doubting the fact that he's a world class batsman, he might not be the most inspiring leader by way of body language, but runs, as I said earlier, can be a pretty good motivator in there own right. And the second thing we have to consider is that there aren't many suitable alternatives. You've listed Sarwan, Lara and Browne, out of which Browne I would say is a total non-entity. I'm surprised how even retain his place in the side, let alone being vice skipper. His batting is close to nothing, and wicket keeping steadily deteriorating. What ever happened to Carlton Baugh?

Lara, has had his chances as skipper before, and he hasn't quite impressed, not everyone at least. Sarwan, he's in an interesting player, has some excellent shots in his bag, and pretty good stats as well, but he's got a few things to work on wrt to his own game - his technique against the short ball (has got out nine times in test cricket trying to hook) being one of them. He's got a good temperament, but perhaps isn't as consistent as everyone would have hoped for, one his day though still good enough. Perhaps someone for the future. Right now Shiv is the right man, four years later, Sarwan would have matured enough, both as a batsmen and as a skipper.

[vvvrulz]

Captaincy, like Zainub pointed out, its not all about looking busy on the field. Sure you can yell and make a song and dance all day long, but if you personally return a couple of dropped catches and a golden duck, then who are you inspiring?

In particular i'm comparing Inzamam with Sourav Ganguly. The indian skipper was billed to be the better captain, but who's team is rapidly on the decline? Who faces being dropped from the squad altogether? If you belt a crucial hundred which will save the day for your team, there is nothing more inspiring, simple as that.