Calcutta: Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the seventh highest run maker in Tests, has finally announced his retirement from international cricket almost 22 years after making his debut. 

Chanderpaul formally notified the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) in an email, on Friday, that he will no longer be available for selection for the West Indies. The writing was on the wall when Chanderpaul was axed for the two

Tests against Australia in June last year after making just 92 runs in the preceding Test series against England. In his last 10 Test innings, Chanderpaul reached 50 on just one occasion.

“The WICB acknowledges the invaluable contribution Shiv has made to the game globally and we wish him all the best,” WICB president Dave Cameron was quoted as saying in a release. 

It was during last week when Chanderpaul was part of the Guyana Jaguars side that lost the first semi-final of the NAGICO Super50 Tournament against Trinidad & Tobago Red Force. He brought the curtain down on a glittering career that featured 164 Test appearances, 268 ODIs and 22 T20Is. 

He made his international debut in March 1994 versus England in his native Guyana, scoring a half-century as West Indies won by an innings and 44 runs. His final Test appearance too was against England last year in May, in Barbados, where West Indies won by five wickets to level a three-Test series against Alastair Cook’s side.