By IANS,
Melbourne : Unconventional to the core, Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s value to the West Indies team is immeasurable and never felt more than during the ongoing series against Australia where he has successfully defanged a hostile pace attack.
Chanderpaul is far from the mould of the traditionally flamboyant West Indian batsman, but he has never been one for the conventional.
You only have to look at his stance, the way he hammers a bail into the ground to mark guard and the baseball-type tape he wears under his eyes to know he is cut from a different cloth.
The quietly spoken left-hander has frustrated the Australians in this series. The tourists could not dismiss him in the second Test, with his marathon unbeaten knocks of 107 and 77 following his fabulous 118 in the first Test.
Just as important has been the 727 balls he has faced to tire out the Australian bowlers under the hot Caribbean sun.
Chanderpaul is so dedicated to his work-out that he has shipped a bowling machine to his home in Orlando, Florida, so that he can work on his game during his time off.
The 33-year-old often bats for three hours against the machine and then has net bowlers hurl deliveries at him for another hour.
“A session of Test cricket lasts two hours – sometimes two and a half hours – so you have to prepare yourself to do this or go longer,” Chanderpaul was quoted as saying in Herald Sun.
“So when I enter the nets, I do not really clock the time. I just go into the nets and bat for as long as I can.
“You never know what will happen in the middle and what the bowlers will bowl to you, so you have to prepare yourself and get your mind adjusted to being able to bat for long hours.”
Australian skipper Ricky Ponting admitted his bowlers had so far had no answers to the batsman.
“We need to do a little bit more homework on him and how we’re even going to look like getting him out,” Ponting said.
“With his technique, across the crease and not far back and not far forward, these type of conditions have really suited him. He’s been ultra-effective.”
To his team, Chanderpaul is just as important as Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd were to Windies sides from another era.