The Chanderpaul Issue

Chanderpaul under seige

Shivnarine Chanderpaul and the West Indies Board have been at loggerheads since he was dropped from the West Indies one day side after the World Cup. Normally a quiet man, he gave an outspoken interview in the West Indies complaining that the coach, Otis Gibson and the Board are telling him how to play his cricket. After 17 years of Test cricket for the Windies and becoming the second highest run scorer behind Brian Lara, he believes he should be left to do what he knows best. In the interview and a subsequent newspaper interview he complained bitterly about the coaching direction under Gibson and the lack of support from Board members, from the President down. In common with other senior players around the world including Shane Warne and former captains like Ian Chappell, he can't see the point to some of the coaching techniques nor how they help his game. At time, Chanderpaul claims he has been given close instruction in how to bat. Given that he has been the only player to maintain his form through this low period of West Indies cricket, he has a point. He also spoke of how much happier he was under the coaching of that SCG Superman, John Dyson, where he was left to do his thing. 

This is a different dispute to the Chris Gayle spat but is related. It also has echoes in the Simon Katich affair as Chanderpaul is convinced that it is his age which is the focus of Gibson and the selectors. Sir Viv Richards and Andy Roberts have both risen to his defence and Roberts, in particular, has been scathing of the Board, President Julian Hunte and CEO Ernest Hilaire.



Line and Length interview with Shiv Chanderpaul by caribbeancricket

CEO Hilaire reacted to the Chanderpaul interview with the following letter.

Dear Shivnarine,

Re: Interview on Line & Length Network

I refer to an interview you participated in on May 5 2011 on the Line & Length Network in which you spoke of matters relating to West Indies cricket.

As a centrally contracted player, we are in the first instance concerned with your participation in such an interview of which we had no prior knowledge and for which the WICB granted no approval. Further, even had you independently decided to engage in such an interview, we must remind you of the duty enshrined in your retainer contract – to ensure that you do not do anything that, in the WICB’s reasonable opinion, is likely to denigrate the WICB, a WICB Team, another Player or any WICB Sponsor or which reveals any information that, in the WICB’s reasonable opinion, is confidential to the WICB.

We also refer you to Rules 6 and 9 of the WICB Code of Conduct, which respectively prohibit unbecoming behaviour that could bring the game of cricket into disrepute or be harmful to the interests of cricket, and players and team officials from making public or media comment which is detrimental to the interests of the game.

It is our opinion that several of the comments made by you in the course of the abovementioned interview have the effect of denigrating the WICB and in particular the Head Coach, the Selectors, the CEO and the Executive Members of the Board. We further consider that your comments were ill-advised and detrimental to the interests of the game.

While we consider it unfortunate that you choose to make public comments on issues about which you may feel dissatisfied, rather than seeking to have discussions with me, any member of Team Management or any other WICB official; we would like to give you the opportunity to explain your comments and the reasons for same.

We would appreciate a response from you within 10 days of receipt of this letter.

Sincerely,
Ernest Hilaire
Chief Executive Officer

West Indies Cricket Board Inc. 

Subsequently, Chanderpaul has met with Hilaire and has been chosen to play in this series but what happened in that meeting is conjecture only.

All of this further underlines the depth of the problem. When a quiet man like Chanderpaul is pushed into such a reaction, trouble is no longer looming, it is here. The parallels with Katich are uncanny. There is no doubt that West Indies cricket needs strong leadership but it needs it from men without vested personal interest. The whiff of corruption wafts about Julian Hunte so much that you check your shoes you meet him. Its time for the West Indies to elect to prominent position men who have the respect of the players.

There is a very good interview with Andy Roberts which cross references some of these issues and some specifics about deficiencies in how West Indies is approaching the development of young players.




The West Indies implosion since that day in the mid nineties when Richie Richardson's arrogance failed to grasp that the wind of change had blown his side away, it has been pretty much downhill, with Chanderpaul the only player to remain from that time and the only one to constantly resist the slide. Now, at a time when the Windies Board should be looking after him and eking out a few more seasons for him with whatever comforts he needs, they instead drop him because he disagreed with the coach and chose to opt out of training routines he felt were detrimental to his main job, his batting. All the while, age is waved about like the dirty word some try to make it in sport when the real guide should always be form.

Its amazing how the best coaches seem to be those who have been successful Test players. They seem to understand that players need to be managed as a whole package, rather than as a collection of subsets of skills to be tweaked and polished. Not only are blokes like this coaching successful sides but their players are happy.- think Kirsten, Wright and even Dyson, who was sacked by the West Indies Board for backing his players in disputes.