Shiv Chanderpaul & Derek Jeter get Records!
- Shiv Chanderpaul, # 10 All Time Test Runs Scorer
American College Cricket supporter,patron & endorser Shiv Chanderpaul, and Derek Jeter were both born in 1974, and this weekend these two consummate professionals and athletes reached extraordinary milestones !
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Since the age of 13, Chanderpaul lived partly with the Jodah family in Georgetown to play cricket and partly at home in the “countryside” of Guyana in Mahaica – an area my father’s side of the family, Jodah (Jodha), once lived too.
My older brother Colin Michael Jodah remembers waking in the morning, and finding a teen Chanderpaul had already left for the Bourda Cricket ground to spend hours practicing.,
As a 16 year old he got into the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) team and played with my younger brother Errol Jodah,a left handed batsman,and cousins Richie and Moses Jodah.. By this time Errol had given up the Captaincy to focus on his job.
One night in March 1994 the Manager of the West Indies team, the legendary Rohan Kanhai asked Richie to get word to Chanderpaul that he would play his first Test !
Richie got to Chanderpaul’s home, and woke him up to give him the news but an incredulous Shiv thought it was a practical joke !
Fiinally Shiv was convinced, and they headed back to Georgetown, and the Bourda Cricket Ground.
Now in his record 133 Tests (more than any other West Indian player ever ) Chanderpaul marked the occasion by a scoring 116*, a match-saving century for his team once more !
Derek Jeter is also the epitome of longevity and achievement. On Saturday, after 16 years in the Major Leagues Jeter reached 3,000 hits, with a Home Run ! He became the first New York Yankee to do so, despite that team’s long and storied history .
Having recently been a part of the National Baseball Hall of Fame Cricket Exhibition, “Swinging Away- how Cricket and Baseball Connect” I, and many American College Cricket players, can better appreciate Jeter’s accomplishment.
So this weekend it was not about the two other symbals of durability we’ve celebrated almost continuously it seems, Sachin Tendulkar and Brett Favre, instead Saturday was Derek Jeter’s day,, and Sunday was Shiv Chanderpaul’s day.
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As former West Indies fast bowler Colin Croft said, ” we should give tremendously great homage to a guy (Chanderapul) who has survived everything thrown at him, even West Indies team captaincy, to soldier on, regardless! Shiv should be celebrated around the cricket world !”
