One of the longest careers in cricket has come to an end, after Shivnarine Chanderpaul announced his retirement from cricket.
The West Indies batting great made his debut way back in 1994, had fallen out of favour with the selectors recently, and the left-hander, who made batting look, well, different, decided to call an end to a career which saw him play 164 Test matches, 268 ODIs and 22 T20Is.
"The WICB acknowledges the invaluable contribution Shiv has made to the game globally and we wish him all the best," said WICB President Dave Cameron.
Chanderpaul scored 11867 runs in Test cricket, making him the second highest run-scorer in the grandest of all formats for the West Indies, only 86 runs behind the legendary Brian Lara.
The 41-year-old, who made his debut and played his final match against England in 1994 and 2015 respectively, had 30 centuries in all of those Test matches, but he will be known more for his unconventional approach to batting.
While left-handers are known for their elegance – and there were very few who looked better with the willow than Lara – Chanderpaul was one of those who kind of went the other way. Ugly, yet ridiculously effective, the left-hander had the knack of scoring runs, runs and more runs, while spending time, time and more time in the middle.
After a peak in his career in the noughties, Chanderpaul was slowly but surely fading, with the West Indies batsman eased out by the West Indies selectors after that England tour of the Caribbean.
While Chanderpaul will be remembered for his Test match batting, he was pretty handy in ODIs too, averaging 41.60, while scoring 8778 runs.
