Chanderpaul retires

St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda (AFP) Veteran West Indies batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the seventh highest Test match run maker in history, announced his international retirement on Friday, 22 years after his debut.

The 41-year-old former captain from Guyana ends his Test career on 11,867 runs, just 86 short of the West Indies all-time record held by Brian Lara.

Chanderpaul, a gritty and stubborn left-hander, made his debut against England in March 1994, in Guyana, hitting a half-century as the West Indies won by an innings and 44 runs.

His final Test was also against England last May in Barbados where the West Indies won by five wickets to level a three-Test series against Alastair Cook's side.

Chanderpaul's highest score in his 164 Tests was 203 not out -- he achieved that figure twice, against Bangladesh in Mirpur in 2012 and South Africa in Georgetown in 2005 and he finished with an average of 51.37. He hit a total of 30 Test centuries and 66 fifties.Possibly, his finest moment came in 2003 when he made 104 as the West Indies successfully chased a world-record 418 for victory in the final Test against Australia in Antigua. But the writing was on the wall for Chanderpaul when he was dropped for the two-Test series against Australia in June last year after making just 92 runs in the three Tests against England.