West Indies batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul has said he still wants to play Test cricket and that he is unlikely to retire until at least the end of 2015.
“Definitely, but I am on the outside just waiting to see what is happening,” Chanderpaul told Cricket365.com when asked if he wanted to play Tests again. “Retirement isn’t on the cards at the moment. Not for now, probably the ending of the year maybe then.”
Chanderpaul needs 87 runs to overtake Brian Lara as the leading Test run-getter from the Carribean but said he wasn’t overly concerned about the record. “Well I am not thinking too much about that,” Chanderpaul, who is playing for Guyana Amazon Warriors in the CPL, said. “You can’t have all these things at the back of your mind but if it happens it happens, but if it doesn’t it doesn’t.”
Chanderpaul, 40, was dropped for the two-Test series against Australia in June after managing only 92 runs at an average of 15.33 in the three Tests against England in April and May. Chanderpaul had six single-digit scores and only one fifty in his last 10 innings.
His axing from the West Indies squad polarised opinions, with Lara saying his former team-mate deserved a farewell series, even as Michael Holding felt Chanderpaul wasn’t good enough to hold down a place in the West Indies team any longer.
West Indies suffered huge defeats in both the Tests against Australia, going down in the first by nine wickets and in the second by 277 runs.