Next in our series on the origin stories of elite cricketers, Jo Harman examines the background of a West Indian batting legend and the emergence of his similarly obdurate son, both having learnt the game the hard way on the Guyanese coast

SHIVNARINE & TAGENARINE CHANDERPAUL

Only six players in the history of Test cricket have played more matches than Shivnarine Chanderpaul, and no one has suffered more defeats. Across a 22-year Test career which included 164 matches, 11,867 runs, 30 centuries and 27,935 deliveries faced, the Guyanese left-hander experienced victory on only 39 occasions, losing almost half the games he played.

When he was dropped in 2015, signalling the end of his international career at the age of 41, he expressed his frustration at what he felt was a premature axing. “I still think I have a lot to offer,” he said, having shed blood, sweat and tears for the cause as a once mighty institution collapsed around him.

Almost six years on his from his retirement, at a time when players’ commitment to the Test game is fading, not least in the Caribbean, Chanderpaul’s monumental career appears even more extraordinary.

Tagenarine Chanderpaul avoids a bouncer on Test debut at Perth in December 2022

PHOTO BY NIKHIL RAMKARRAN

What drove him on? Where did his insatiable desire to bat for as long as he possibly could as often as he possibly could stem from? The answer lies in the small fishing town of Unity Village, situated in the north-east of Guyana, around 40 minutes’ drive from the Bourda Oval in Georgetown where a 19-year-old Chanderpaul – waif-like and batting in a comically oversized helmet – made a plucky 62 on Test debut against England in 1994.

Picked as a leg-spinning all-rounder, the teenager made half-centuries from No.6 in each of his first four Tests, and, according to Wisden, “batted with startling maturity ”. “He does not have the flair or range of his fellow left-hander Lara,” continued the Almanack, “but he could be the glue in the West Indian middle order for many years.”