Shiv Chanderpaul meets with UCF & UF students !

: Shiv & Krishna Dase,President of the Gators Cricket Club

It was a quick trip to the USA, yet International cricket Superstar Shiv Chanderpaul took time to meet with college cricket players from the University of Florida (Gators,UF) and the University of Central Florida (UCF).

Chanderpaul recently became # 10 on the List of top Tests run scorers of all-time.He also has the 4th fastest century ever in Test cricket and has been the rock of the West Indies cricket team for at least the past 10 years. At age 36, his consistently high performance is similar, in American terms, to Derek Jeter.

Sai Ramesh UCF, who excelled at the 2010 American College Cricket Spring Break Championship,described the exciting evening:

“Thanks to American College Cricket President Lloyd Jodah, for letting me play a part in this momentous occasion ! A cricket superstar of Chanderpaul’s stature visting an American college campus ! Truly unprecedented !

I greeted Mr Chanderpaul and his Manager Krish when they arrived ! I asked Shiv if he didn’t mind wearing the UCF shirt and he accepted it with pleasure ! Everyone was so thrilled seeing SHIV in the first place ,plus sporting a UCF tshirt was a great gesture !

I brought them to the seminar hall that was booked for the event. After a big round of applause, I played a the video of when Chanderpaul hits a six off Chaminda Vaas to win the match for West Indies) ! I gave a brief intro (not that it was needed !) of Mr.Chanderpaul and his achievements.

A humble celebrity, instead of just a speech he said we could ask him any questions ! He was asked all the kind of questions about his career, his best moment..cricket related technical questions…about his stance…how he coped with the pressure of international cricket…and so on !

He seemed to enjoy the questions, as he started cracking jokes and making fun out of the questions ! After the questions were done, the photo session and the autographs were given to the students !

Shiv and Chris promised that they would help set up training sessions for the UCF cricket players at the campus !

It was an awesome experience…such a down to earth person ! truly amazing ! Mr.Chanderpaul sporting a UCF T-Shirt..How about that ! ”

The University of Central Florida students and members of the Gators Cricket Club from the University of Florida who were present were enthralled by the opportunity to meet, take photos with, and get autographs from the cricket superstar. Here are just a few of the rave reviews:

Priya Ravindran gushed : “Chanderpaul is one of the coolest celebrities! Had a wonderful experience !!”
Mahadevan Vasudevan raved: ” Amazing Batsman! Amazing Personality! Nice talking to him 🙂 !”

Sundaram Saminathan was thrilled: ” Was a great evening..!!!”

The President of the Gators Cricket Club, Krishna Dase was pumped, he said:

“We were honored to have an opportunity to meet Shivnarine Chanderpaul. The questions and photo sessions with him definitely boosted our players moral.

He also autographed our spring tournament t-shirts. This is so cool that not only it would help promote our cricket club at UF but also around Gainesville.”

Chanderpaul told the students of UCF and UF :

“American College Cricket has accomplished a lot of things. A lot of teams are joining and coming on board with us……its the right place, at the college level….American College Cricket is going to cause Americans to pay more attention, learn the rules and its going to grow more.”

The American College Cricket Southeast Championship will be played November 6 & 7, at the Cricket Stadium in Central Broward Regional Park.