Shivnarine Chanderpaul Tribute!

Roger Sawh, Canada
espncricinfo

"Chanderpaul in one-day cricket? He's too old, man! Brethren, he doesn't score fast enough, he needs 150 overs! He's been in so many losses man! Brotha, we've got to move on from him!"

In the above few lines lies a modern-day cricket mystery that I struggle to comprehend.

The West Indies' one-day international cricket team of 2013 is the personification of the phrase 'all flash and little substance'. Blessed with a galaxy of stars of the Twenty20 arena, it's a group that would command an IPL owner's highest bids with ease and, given 20 overs of operation, would most likely deliver breathtaking results. Sadly for them, T20s and ODIs are entirely different endeavours.

On the spectrum of cricket formats, ODIs are thought to be in the middle while T20s and Tests lie at their respective extremes. A closer consideration, though, gives a better idea of things as ODI cricket is closer to Test cricket in nature than T20. Batsmen are required to build innings in ODIs, hence the format necessitates patience, soundness of technique, deep consideration, concentration, and conditional awareness. In T20s, a 'wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am' fifty in no time at all is a game-changer, but in ODIs, its effect is not quite as prolific - a steady and calculated approach bears greater fruit in a 50-over war of attrition, as the value of an innings lies not just in the shots and runs, but also in the negotiation of bowlers, spells, fielding restrictions and playing conditions.

In the West Indies' set-up, the vast majority of batsmen either completely lack or inexplicably suppress the rare talent of building an innings. It is a talent that Shivnarine Chanderpaul , an evergreen batsman of close to 300 ODIs who has been producing runs across formats despite approaching the age of 40, has bursting forth from his anti-glare eye patches. It is a gift that the powers that be in West Indies team selection are willfully blind to and, as collapses continue to litter modern-day West Indies cricket history, it is a boon that has been simply deserted

In the West Indies' set-up, the vast majority of batsmen either completely lack or inexplicably suppress the rare talent of building an innings. It is a talent that Shivnarine Chanderpaul , an evergreen batsman of close to 300 ODIs who has been producing runs across formats despite approaching the age of 40, has bursting forth from his anti-glare eye patches. It is a gift that the powers that be in West Indies team selection are willfully blind to and, as collapses continue to litter modern-day West Indies cricket history, it is a boon that has been simply deserted.

Recent history bears testament to the need for a Chanderpaul-like presence. Throughout the course of the Champions Trophy, when Chris Gayle or Marlon Samuels failed to provide a platform for an innings, the team's batting would generally be lost at sea. In the just concluded tri-series with India and Sri Lanka, fireworks in Jamaica only temporarily hid the batting unit's frailties, as the team eventually failed to make their own home series final. Fast forward to Sunday, when Pakistan surgically dismantled the West Indies batting approach on a minefield in Providence, Guyana, and you could see the tumour just grow.