BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - WHEN the West Indies Cricket Board announced the 12-member training squad to face Australia starting next week, one name that has been associated with West Indies Test cricket for the past 21 years was missing.
That name is Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who was omitted from the side after representing the regional team on 161 occasions; the most by any player.
Is this the end of an era in West Indies cricket?
The 40-year-old Guyanese batsman is also the second leading run scorer for the West Indies in Test cricket, just 45 runs short of Brian Lara who leads the pack with 11,912.
Commenting on Chanderpaul's shocking omission, Chairman of Selectors Clive Lloyd stated that it was a tough decision to leave out the Guyanese batsman.
“Over a period of time we've noticed a decline in form...over the last 11 innings he's averaging 16, so we thought the time has come to look towards younger players.
"I don't think there's any bitterness. I think he realised that at 40 years old he's not going to be in the same shape he was at 20. We just thought that here it is, we must make a decision. We have a lot of good young cricketers and we think it's time we inject the youth into our cricket," Lloyd said.
In an article earlier this month, veteran cricket commentator Tony Cozier indicated that West Indies selectors would have an important decision when they meet to select the squad for the Australian tour.
"Do Lloyd and his colleagues interpret the sudden, dramatic slump of the one, consistently reliable West Indies batsman during the continuing period of decline as the immediate end to his extraordinary career?
"Even as he turned 40 last August, it appeared the slender left-hander, tagged ‘Tiger’ for his fierce, single-minded resistance in the face of repeated lost causes, could well carry on to become the game's Methuselah," Cozier stated.
Cozier also looked at Chanderpaul's recent form slump.
"He remains fit and agile in the field; batting is an altogether different matter for those depending on their reflexes and eyesight to deal with a five-and-a-half ounce of leather ball aimed in their direction from a distance of less than 22 yards. Pakistan's Misbah-ul-Haq is presently the only other Test cricketer of such vintage.
"In his last six tests, Chanderpaul managed 91 runs in five innings in South Africa last December and January, and 92 in six against England over the past month. He has succumbed to eight different bowlers of various types."
Chanderpaul is said to have first stamped his authority on the regional scene at a West Indies U-19 tournament in St. Kitts in 1993, where he showed an unmatched hunger for runs and finished top of the charts in that category.
One year later, he was representing the senior West Indies team against England and was the chief partner as Brain Lara broke Garfield Sobers' record.
However, though it may seem that one Chanderpaul is on his way out of cricket, another one may soon be into Test cricket as his son, Tagenarine, is highly touted as a future West Indies batsman.
Chanderpaul had scored 11,867 runs in Test cricket, averages 51.37 and has 30 centuries.
He made his debut against England in 1994 and his last Test was also played against the same opponent in Barbados earlier this month.
The first Test against Australia will be in Dominica from June 3 to 7.
