During the 2002 Cable & Wireless series between the West Indies and India here in the Caribbean the visiting coach John Wright was asked what in his estimation was the greatest obstacle to Indian victories. His response was simple and straightforward. "If only we can get that bloody Chanderpaul out," Wright, the former Test opening batsman said in his thick Kiwi accent.
That is the effect Shivnarine Chanderpaul has on opposing teams. As they are running through the Windies batting and expect all and sundry to roll over, Chanderpaul bats as though he has been removed from the reality of the situation, just going on and on.
In an age when sledging has become an integral weapon in many team's armory, Chanderpaul's brand of focused resistance can demoralize and irritate the opposition into bowling poorly enough and in turn he never fails to make hay.
He is as ideal a counterfoil for the brilliance of Brian Lara as there is. From very early on in his career when with an unbeaten 75 he accompanied the Trinidadian to surpassing the world record of 375 in Antigua. It was only his fourth Test.
Lara has always been regarded as a match winner, and justifiably so as he has proven time and again.
Chanderpaul may not be in the same category but an examination of his career and statistics highlights that he too is a proven warrior, though of a different mold.
He is a man who will not sink quietly as his team's boat is taking water by the barrels.
Unlike Lara who is capable of single-handedly turning a match on its head and marching the Windies to victory, Chanderpaul is more the type of player who will close down an end and badger his way to a position which recaptures hope.
In Tests Shiv has so far collected eight centuries but five of those were not innings where he simply cashed in on dead tracks as a number of top batsmen are known to do.
They were scored when the Windies needed him to fasten himself at the crease, resuscitate their innings and bring decency to their dressing room.
His first century in Barbados, 137 not out on a very difficult wicket was the bulk of the team's 298 total against India. The next best effort was by fast bowling great Curtly Ambrose's 37. All the other batsmen failed and it was up to the 29 year old left hander to deliver and so he did. It will be remembered that his innings was a crucial ingredient in that blockbuster 38 run victory when India needed 130 to win but fell in a pile of dust for 81.
His first home hundred, 118 against England, was another priceless knock getting the Windies to 352 when only Lara made any other significant impact with 93.
The Unity Tiger's unfinished 101 at the Kensington Oval last year offered invaluable support to Carl Hooper's 115 to cast the Windies in a winning position against the Indians after they went down in the previous Test at the Queens Park Oval in Trinidad.
And his most recent Test centuries were both classic knocks documented as innings as close to batting perfection as any other to have been played in the recent past. The third fastest hundred in the history of the game at Bourda against the world's best team shocked the world coming from one of the unlikeliest men in contemporary cricket to achieve the feat. That innings firmly and finally peeled away the unfair and unwanted scab he had attached to his back as a slow run scorer.
It was an even 100 out of 237 with only Ridley Jacobs standing tall with 54.
Shiv's last hundred 104, made with a fractured finger, was second only to his countryman Ramnaresh Sarwan's 105 in the West Indies' historic record breaking 418 run fourth innings victory chase in Antigua, again against the dominating and domineering Australians. That he made it not only when his team was desperate for the runs but in a physical condition which should have had him resting on a doctor's table is enough to make it worthy of a subplot in Lagaan.
Of all his 17 scores better than 75 runs in Test cricket, nine were the team's top score. What is striking about those nine top scores is that only two were made as part of team totals more than 450. Each of the other times Chanderpaul dug the West Indies out of the holes in which they had found themselves.
In a game with six specialist batsmen Chanderpaul, in those seven innings, contributed an average of one third of the team totals.
He made 77 out of 304 against England when the next best was 44 from Ambrose. 95 of 303 with Sherwin Campbell offering sole support with 78. 89 from 273 against a rampaging Wasim Akram (6 for 61) and the Pakistanis when only Jimmy Adams stood with him for 60.
The list of his strong- minded innings which played either a primary or contributing role in salvaging the West Indies innings seems unending.
There is another label which he had previously carried around which he is now relieving, thanks to a constant conversion rate. From once being branded a `fifties specialist' Chanderpaul has now converted all of his last six scores north of 75, to three figures (140,101*, 136*, 140, 100 & 104).
In between he has put together four half centuries as well.
His consistency has now afforded Shiv to be ideally poised to etch his name among some of the finest batsmen to have flown the flag of the West Indies.
The soft spoken, light hearted batsman is number seven on the list of all time West Indian limited overs run scorers with 3941 runs and he sits at number 13 on the list of Windies Test run scorers with 4260 runs. Among Guyanese test batsmen he is sixth behind Clive Lloyd (7515), Rohan Kanhai (6227), Carl Hooper (5762), Alvin Kallicharan (4399), and Roy Fredericks (4334).
Along with Lara, Chanderpaul is the only West Indian batsman with an average above 40, a very respectable 43.46 with the potential-filled younger batsmen still to assert themselves with any finality.
One anomaly of his career so far is that his highest One Day International score of 150 against South Africa is better that his top Test innings of 140 which he reached twice. That 150 is one of eleven scores over 75 which Chanderpaul has chalked up in ODIs with all but one being the team top score.
Three were centuries (109, 150 & 108*) and only three were part of totals over 250. Again this reveals that as the Windies needed him most he was there battling away.
And battle away he must as he seeks to climb that ladder up the all time West Indies scorers' lists and as the West Indies seesaws their way back to the top.