THIS is a big year for Shivnarine Chanderpaul. By the end of September, he will have celebrated his 40th birthday and he could have become the West Indies' leading Test run-scorer of all time.
He is also looking to help Derbyshire back to Division One of the LV County Championship and that quest will begin against Leicestershire tomorrow at Grace Road (11am).
It will be the little Guyanese left-hander's second campaign with Derbyshire and the first did not bring the volume of runs he is accustomed to making. A tally of 884 at 38.43 with one century was respectable but no more than that.
Test duties could take him away for two spells this summer but when he is around, Chanderpaul is hoping for more batsman-friendly conditions – for all his team-mates' sakes.
"For myself it was tough but for the younger guys who are trying to learn the game and develop their skills going out and playing on wickets like those is never good for them and their confidence," he said.
"A couple of low scores can mess you up and some of the batters were not able to recover.
"At this time the wickets are always fresh and we lost most of the tosses last year and had to bat. It was tough as a batter but that's last year. Guys are more prepared for it this year.
"To have gone through it last year and still done pretty much OK – we could have done better – will help us. We will take from last year and draw the strengths from it and bring it on to this year.
"If we have better wickets this year, we should do a lot better."[left][/left]
Chanderpaul has also come back to a new regime on his return to the 3aaa County Ground but knows both Graeme Welch and Ant Botha from their time together with Warwickshire.
He has been impressed by the change the new coaching structure has brought to Derbyshire.
"It's been good. I think the players are happy with what's been happening and they have been doing a lot more work but they are enjoying it and having some fun," Chanderpaul added.
"His (Welch's) standards of work are very professional and that's what you are looking for. You want the fellas to think that way and play that way.[left][/left]
"The guys are raring to go and it's going to be interesting to see what it's like when we start against Leicester."
Chanderpaul is set to miss five Championship and five t20 matches if he is, as expected, called up by the West Indies for three home Tests against New Zealand in June and two against Bangladesh in September.
If he scores 694 runs or more in those two Test series, he will overtake Brian Lara's 11,912 total and become the West Indies' most prolific batsman ever.
But Chanderpaul is not taking anything for granted.
"It would be really nice to get that and get past Brian," he said.
"It's still a long way away and could take a few series or maybe more, you never know. There's still a lot of work to do.
"All you can do is prepare yourself well enough so that when you step out there you have enough confidence to go out there and perform but you don't know what is going to happen."[left][/left]
