WICB to honour Chanderpaul

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, (CMC):

THE WEST Indies Cricket Board (WICB) is planning to honour batting star and International Cricket Council (ICC) Player-of-the-Year Shivnarine Chanderpaul during next year's England tour.

The left-handed Chanderpaul became the first West Indies player to be named ICC Cricketer of the Year earlier this month and the WICB announced this week it will honour the Guyanese in a "special recognition ceremony" at the start of the 2009 English tour of the Caribbean.

The WICB, in an official release on Tuesday, said it was supportive of a proposal for a special recognition ceremony at the beginning of the Test series against England."Whereas Shiv Chanderpaul has been voted by the International Cricket Council (ICC) as Cricketer of The Year 2008 and has been named to the ICC's World Test Team of The Year for his outstanding performances ... Be it resolved that the WICB equally recognises his special performances and results and hereby heartily congratulates him in making the WICB and West Indians proud," the release stated.

Test matches

England will be in the Caribbean from late January to early April for four Test matches, four one-day international (ODI) matches and a Twenty20 International.

On September 10 in Dubai, Chanderpaul collected the ICC Cricketer of the Year award - the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy - at the prestigious LG ICC Awards.

Chanderpaul, 34, had a bumper year, scoring 247 runs in three Tests in South Africa, 130 runs in two Tests against Sri Lanka, and rounding off the Digicel Home Series 2008 with 442 at an average of 147.33 against Australia.

Voting period

During the voting period, he played eight Test matches, scoring 819 runs at a fabulous average of 91.00, including three centuries and six 50s, all of which were against the top seven teams in the world.

In the process, he became only the fourth West Indies batsman - after legends Brian Lara, Sir Vivian Richards and Sir Garfield Sobers - to surpass 8,000 runs in Test cricket. He also played 13 ODIs during that time, finishing top of the averages with 74.75 having scored 598 runs, a haul that included a century and five 50s.

That form propelled the outstanding Guyanese to No 1 in the ICC batting rankings for the first time in his career.