Windies reportedly set to dump legend

A local media report claims veteran batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul will be left out of the West Indies squad for the upcoming Test series against Australia.

According to the T&T Guardian, the left-hander was not part of the group that gathered in Barbados on Friday for a pre-series camp before the first Test in Dominica on June 3.

The T&T Guardian is reporting the team management's suggestion that Chanderpaul retire was met with resistance from the 40-year-old, so they were forced to leave him out in favour of a younger player.

The West Indies training squad for the two-Test series against Michael Clarke's men is expected to be announced on Sunday (Caribbean time). 

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Chanderpaul has been a mainstay of the West Indian middle order for 21 years, and his reported absence from this series comes with him just 86 runs short of Brian Lara's all-time West Indian run-scoring record.

Chanderpaul has built an imposing resume since his debut against England in 1994, compiling 11,867 runs at 51 with 30 centuries.

But his prolific run-scoring has tailed off in his past two series against South Africa and England, scoring 183 runs from 11 innings with one half-century.

He currently holds the No.12 position in the ICC Test batting rankings, well ahead of the next highest-ranked Windies batsman, Darren Bravo in 28th.

Australia will hope the reports are accurate, as Chanderpaul has been particularly ruthless against the tourists on home soil, scoring 1,045 runs in nine Tests at an average of 80.38 with five centuries. 

West Indies chairman of selectors Clive Lloyd refused to give a definitive answer when asked by Trinidad-based radio station 103FM if the veteran would take any part in the series.

"You can't play players if they're nearing a record, if they're not producing," said Lloyd, who played his last Test aged 40 against Australia in Sydney in 1984.

"He's an icon in so far as cricket is concerned but there comes a time when we would have to say 'thanks very much'. It comes to all of us.

"If it does happen you have to move on and you have to accept certain things in life."

Earlier this week, West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) chairman Dave Cameron said he had been disappointed in the past with how some Windies players had been treated at the end of their careers.

Cameron said that when the time came for Chanderpaul to retire, he was determined to honour him in a manner befitting a man of his stuature in the game.

"I have never really liked how we have ushered out our players, so as president I am always trying to figure out how to honour them," Cameron told CMC.

"We're doing it now on a continuous basis, year by year, for their performances, but at the end of a long and illustrious career like Shivnarine Chanderpaul's we want to ensure that whatever we do, it is well respected and that he knows and the region knows how much we value his services to West Indies cricket."