Derbyshire weekend talking point - the how and the why

There’s one other factor. Earlier in the season, I noted with interest that Shivnarine Chanderpaul was often in the outfield at third man and fine leg. I assumed that this was a preference of the player, but it struck me that it was a waste of experience. A man with ten thousand Test runs and with international captaincy experience would surely have been of greater merit to the side in a more accessible position?

More recently we have seen Shiv at slips, or in a short extra-cover position, where he can provide advice to the captain when needed and offer an encouraging word to the bowlers and fielders. Who wouldn’t respond to a man of his reputation? Batting with someone like Chanderpaul is what you dream of as you’re growing up and getting a ‘well done’ from him must make you feel ten feet tall.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul in action

There have been comments – from myself and others – on the runs not being as abundant as we might have hoped, but he’s hardly been a failure, just dropped from standards that most can only dream of. Yet his greater contribution may be one that to most outside the team isn’t obvious.

It is commitment.

It is working on his game in the nets longer than anyone, then being happy to bowl at those who want to try and emulate him. It is in his preparation for a game, his willingness to talk cricket to young players, to pass on the knowledge of twenty years at the top. It is in his passion for excellence at the age of 39, when most are thinking of a career outside the game.

It is in his touching of gloves with young players when they’ve played a good shot and the leaping into the arms of Tim Groenewald yesterday after he saw us to a crucial win, as well as his modesty in deflecting praise from his own performance by praising theirs. You get the impression that he cares. Yes, he will be getting well-paid for his role, but money can buy performance, not always commitment.

We may not (yet) have seen the very best of Chanderpaul the batsman from a weight of runs perspective, but his influence and attitude to the game will be something that his current young team mates can use as the basis of their own careers.

When Eddie Barlow played for us, his greatest days were behind him, but there was enough left in the tank to make fans grateful and place him on a pedestal from which he has never slipped. Go back through the year books and there were plenty of failures with the bat, but his contribution was so much more than that, on and off the field.

I suspect that much the same will happen with Shiv. In thirty years, we will remember his T20 gem against Lancashire; his delightful knocks against Nottinghamshire, a classy century against Surrey and the technique that saw us to victory yesterday. We will all say to our families and friends “I saw Chanderpaul at Derbyshire”. Players will say, quite proudly, “I played with him”.

Who knows? Maybe the tales might even refer to a crucial knock in a game against the top side in the country, that turned the cricket world upside down and helped to make the story of the season.