COMMENTARY: A case for Shane Shillingford – in his own figures

Taken in context, Shane Shillingford, like Shiv Chanderpaul, is as resilient as they come. While Chanderpaul’s career spans a much longer period – over two decades and 164 matches – of persistent performance, Shane’s is only over four years and 16 matches. Shane had to overcome all the historical obstacles associated with a spinner attempting to play in West Indian colors.

According to ESPNCricinfo, “Shane Shillingford appeared on the domestic scene in 2000/01, but despite an impressive first-class record, he struggled to break into the Test side. After several years of toil, he finally came into his own during the A team’s matches against England at home, and in Bangladesh in 2010”.

Shane then had to overcome the sanctioning for suspect action. On both occasions he overcame. This last time though the sanctioning has limited his repertoire of deliveries but he still perseveres and thankfully, is still on West Indies retainer contracts.

Notwithstanding his diminished bowling repertoire (no doosra), Shillingford is still a very potent force and frankly, as is so often with West Indian spinners, he was not given sufficient opportunity to recover from this valley of rehabilitated action, whether psychologically, emotionally or technique-wise. Irrespective, there is still logic and sufficient grounds for his recall to the West Indies side for the upcoming Australia-West Indies Tour in June.

Shillingford, like Chanderpaul, if granted the opportunity by the Selectors, the next outing for him would be at the Windsor Park Stadium in Roseau, Dominica. This is his home ground of countless exploits in domestic and regional cricket.

His most recent exploits were less than two months ago in the regional match Windward Islands vs Guyana in which he had figures of:
52 overs 13 maidens 118 runs 5 wickets with an Economy of 2.26

This was 52 from a total of 149.2 overs – a little more than a third of the Windward’s bowling.

Interestingly in that match Shillingford took the wicket of Chanderpaul who had scored 119 to secure Guyana’s victory by an innings and ten runs.

In test matches at Roseau, Shillingford’s performance can only be described as heavenly – supremely divine.

In April 2012 at Windsor Park against the Australians, in both innings, Shillingford had figures:

Shillingford’s Stats at Roseau against Australia.
1st Overs: 42.5, Maidens: 9, Runs: 119, Wicket: 6,  Econ: 2.71, Dots: 190, 4s: 6, 6s: 3
2nd Overs: 39, Maidens: 7, Runs: 100,Wickets: 4, Econ: 2.56, Dots: 181, 4s: 9, 6s: 1

He had the wickets of Warner, Ponting, Clarke, Hussey, Wade and Hilfenhaus in the first innings and Watson, Clarke, Hussey and Hilfenhaus in the second innings. Most of his scalps were powerhouses of the Aussies’ batting line up. He missed out on the Man-of-the-Match award because Australia had won on the strength of Wade’s first innings century of 106.

Shillingford collected 10 for 219 in the match, becoming the first West Indies spinner since Lance Gibbs captured 10 for 106 against England at Old Trafford in 1966 to achieve the feat.

He also became only the second West Indies spin bowler to ever take 10 wickets in the Caribbean, following Wilfred Ferguson, whose 11 for 229 helped earn a draw against England 64 years ago at Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad.

Shillingford repeated the feat a year later when West Indies played Zimbabwe in a two test series. In March 2013 at Windsor Park Stadium, in both innings Shillingford returned the following figures: Shillingford’s Stats at Roseau against Zimbabwe
Innings Overs Maidens Runs Wicket Econ. Dots 4s 6s
1st             21.5: 4 59            5        2.70     100      6 0
2nd            15 4 34                 5         2.26     74       1 2

Like against the Aussies the previous year he bowled about a third of all the overs bowled by West Indies in each innings. What’s more he routed the best Zimbabwean batsmen for very low scores.

Also, one would recall that in the previous match of that series against Zimbabwe played at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Shillingford had figures of 3 for 58 and 6 for 49. He was Man-of-the-Match in both Test of the Series and quite obviously the Man-of-the-Series with 19 wickets in two tests.

Shane can show real rearguard resistance at times. In batting at Windsor Park against the Aussies, Shane scored his second best test score – an unbeaten 31* in the second innings. He and Darren Sammy took WI from 245 for 9 to 294 all out in a rear display of real rearguard fight back but the loss was inevitable.

The next venue for the second test against the Aussies this year is Sabina Park where Shane has test bowling figures of 3 for 145 off 46.3 overs and 2 for 39 off 13 overs in the match against New Zealand in June 2014. He and Suleiman Benn sent down 46.3 and 52 overs respectively of the 174.3 bowled in the first innings and 13 and 17.6 overs respectively of the 60.5 bowled by West Indies in the second innings.

Interestingly enough, when it comes to batting at Sabina, Shane registered his highest ever test score – an unbeaten 53* against the Kiwis in the second innings of June 2014 Test. It was another Shane rearguard fight – and display too. He came in when WI were 134 for 9 and chasing a target of 403. Shane the number 11 for that match blasted his 53* in 29 balls with 3 fours and 5 sixes. The actual 50 came up in 25 balls and it was the fastest Test fifty by a West Indian batsman! It’s also the second-fastest by anyone, behind Jacques Kallis, who did it in 24 balls.

Given these Statistics, and with Suleiman Benn out of the contention Shane should be seriously considered for a recall to play in the Dominica and SabinaTest and if he does not fare well at home and in Jamaica then he would go back to the drawing board.

Shane bowling in tandem with Bishoo on the Windsor Park wicket could spell mayhem, destruction and collapse for the Aussies. Recall that Bishoo in March took 10 for 112 in the same encounter that Shane took 5 for 118. Shane has another competitor in Permaul who in that match took 8 for 94 in the same match.

In think the Selectors must think logically and strategically and give Shane a recall. I am convinced if they do recall Shane, the results in the two Tests at Windsor Park Stadium and Sabina would be supremely divine.

I hope the Selectors see this article especially if all of Dominica speak with one voice.

Sylvester Cadette is a Dominican living in Barbados and a cricket lover. This article is part two of a two-part series on the West Indies/Australia tour which begins in Dominica on Wednesday.