The West Indies includes the islands bordering the Caribbean Sea, plus the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands, which are surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. Historically, the term "West India" was sometimes used to mean all these islands as well.

It is often divided up by association with European countries:

• British West Indies
• Dutch West Indies
• French West Indies
• Spanish West Indies
• Danish West Indies

It may further refer to

• Dutch West India Company, a chartered company of Dutch merchants, founded in 1621
• West Indies cricket team
• West Indies Federation, a short-lived federation of former British colonies in the Caribbean
• West India

See also[link]

• Indies
• The West Indian, a 1771 play by Richard Cumberland

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. It needs additional citations for verification. Tagged since December 2009. It relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Tagged since December 2009. It may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Tagged since December 2009. It may be confusing or unclear to readers. Tagged since December 2009.

  

  Indian subcontinent

  Indies

  Western New Guinea

The Indies is a term that has been used to describe the lands of South and Southeast Asia,^[1] occupying all of the present India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and also Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Brunei, Singapore, the Philippines, East Timor, Malaysia and most of Indonesia. In a more restricted sense, the Indies can be used to refer to the islands of Southeastern Asia, especially the Malay Archipelago.^[1][2] The name "Indies" is derived from the river Indus and is used to connote parts of Asia that come under Indian cultural influence (except Vietnam which comes under the Sinosphere).

Dutch-held colonies in the area were known as the Dutch East Indies before Indonesian independence, while Spanish-held colonies were known as the Spanish East Indies before the Philippines' independence. The East Indies may also include Indochina, the Philippine Islands, Brunei, Singapore and East Timor. It does not, however, include western New Guinea (West Papua), which is part of Melanesia.

The inhabitants of the East Indies are sometimes called East Indians, distinguishing them both from inhabitants of the Caribbean (which is also called the West Indies) and from the indigenous peoples of the Americas who are often called "American Indians." However, the peoples of the East Indies comprise a wide variety of cultural diversity, and the inhabitants do not consider themselves as belonging to a single ethnic group. Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam are the most popular religions throughout the region, while Christianity, Sikhism, Jainism and various other traditional beliefs and practices are also prominent in some areas. The major languages in this area draw from a wide variety of language families, and should not be confused with the term Indic, which refers only to a group of Indo-Iranian languages from South Asia.

The extensive East Indies are subdivided into two sections (from a European perspective), archaically called Hither India and Further India. The first is the former British India, the second is modern Southeast Asia or the ASEAN Bloc.

Regions of the East Indies are sometimes known by the colonial empire they once belonged to, hence, British East Indies refers to Malaysia, the Dutch East Indies means Indonesia, and Spanish East Indies means the Philippines.

Historically, the king of Abyssinia (modern Ethiopia) was identified with "Prester John of the Indies", since that part of the world was imagined to be one of "Three Indias".

History[link]

Exploration of these regions by European powers first began in the late 15th century and early 16th century, led by the Portuguese explorers. These regions became important sources of trading goods, particularly cotton, indigo and spices after the establishment of European trading companies designed for the specific purpose: the British East India Company and Dutch East India Company, among others, in the 17th century.

The New World was initially thought to be the easternmost part of the Indies by explorer Christopher Columbus, who had grossly underestimated the westerly distance from Europe to Asia. Later, to avoid confusion, the New World came to be called the "West Indies", while the original Indies came to be called the "East Indies".

The racial designation East Indian was once primarily used to describe people of all of the East Indies, but more recently, it has been used widely to refer to an Indian from India, in order to avoid the potential confusion from the term American Indian who were once simply referred to as Indians (see the Native American name controversy for more information).

See also[link]

• Greater India
• Indian (disambiguation)
• Malay Archipelago
• Discovery of the Americas
• Spanish East Indies
• West Indies

References[link]

v t e Regions of the World Africa Northern Middle East Sub-Saharan Central Southern Western Eastern Oceania Australasia Australia Zealandia Melanesia Micronesia Polynesia America North Northern Middle Central Caribbean South Southern Northern Western Guianan States Anglo Latin (Hispanic) Polar regions Arctic Antarctic Asia Central Eastern Northeastern Northern Southeastern Mainland Maritime Southern Indian subcontinent Western Middle East Oceans World Arctic Atlantic Indian Pacific Southern Europe Central Eastern Northern Southeastern Middle East Southern Western Seas List of seas Related Continents of the world List of seas Physical Earth

Coordinates: 1°00′N 103°00′E / 1°N 103°E / 1; 103

Shivnarine Chanderpaul

Personal information
Born	(1974-08-16) 16 August 1974 (age 37) Unity Village, Guyana
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Batting style	Left-handed
Bowling style	Right-arm leg break
Role	Batsman
Relations	Lawrence Prittipaul (cousin)
International information
National side	West Indies
Test debut	17 March 1994 v England
Last Test	28 April 2012 v Australia
ODI debut	17 October 1994 v India
Last ODI	23 March 2011 v Sri Lanka
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1991–present	Guyana
2007–09	Durham
2008	Royal Challengers Bangalore
2010	Lancashire
2011–present	Warwickshire
2012–present	Khulna Royal Bengal
Career statistics
Competition	Test	ODI	FC	LA
Matches	140	268	282	385
Runs scored	10,055	8,778	20,765	12,293
Batting average	50.02	41.60	55.52	41.67
100s/50s	25/59	11/59	62/102	12/88
Top score	203*	150	303*	150
Balls bowled	1,740	740	4,694	1,681
Wickets	9	14	57	56
Bowling average	98.11	45.42	43.70	24.78
5 wickets in innings	0	0	0	0
10 wickets in match	0	0	0	0
Best bowling	1/2	3/18	4/22	4/22
Catches/stumpings	57/–	73/–	154/–	109/–
Source: Cricinfo, 28 April 2012

Shivnarine "Shiv" Chanderpaul (born 16 August 1974) is a cricketer, and former captain of the West Indies cricket team. He is the first Indo-Caribbean to play 100 Tests for the West Indies and has captained them in 14 Tests and 16 One Day Internationals. Chanderpaul is currently ranked number one test batsman in the world in the ICC official rankings.^[1]

Career[link]

A West Indian cricketer of Indian origin, the left-handed Chanderpaul is known for his doggedness and ability to stick on the wicket for long hours. He is known in the cricketing world for his unorthodox front-on batting stance, although he shifts his body into a more conventional position when he plays the ball, thus making him a prolific scorer on both sides of the wicket. His stance allows him to get most of his runs behind the wicket. Chanderpaul is renowned for playing left arm spin bowlers by getting his pad outside the line of off-stump, and hiding his bat behind the pad, in imitation of a shot, but without the risk of edging the ball. Chanderpaul's first notable impact on Test cricket was as being the last batting partner of Brian Lara when Lara broke Gary Sobers' record of 365 not out in the fifth and final Test against England in 1993–94. Lara went on to make 375 before he was caught off Andrew Caddick's bowling, sharing a 219-run stand with Chanderpaul, who was left not out on 75.

Chanderpaul made his first Test century in his 19th Test match – after having scored 15 half-centuries in the preceding 18 matches. In the third of a five-Test series against India in 1996–97, he made 137* at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados. He also featured with his Guyanese counterpart, and former West Indian vice captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, making 104 in chasing a world record 418 to win in the fourth innings of the final Test match versus Australia in 2002–03.

Chanderpaul's best first class score is 303* versus Jamaica for Guyana, and, despite his reputation as a dogged batsman, he has also made the fourth fastest century in Test cricket, scoring three figures in just 69 balls at the Bourda, Guyana, also in the 2002–03 series against Australia.^[2]

He was named captain of West Indies in the first Test versus South Africa in March 2005 in Guyana, after seven senior players including captain Brian Lara were dropped in a sponsorship row. He emulated Graham Dowling to become only the second player to make a double century on debut as a Test captain, scoring an unbeaten 200 and making a sporting declaration in the first Test. It was announced that Lara would return to the team for the second Test, but Chanderpaul would retain the captaincy for the rest of the series. He was named to the squad of twenty for the World XI to face Australia in the Super Test in October 2005, but when the squad was cut to fourteen names in August his name was not mentioned.

Chanderpaul remains one of the most recognisable faces in all of the West Indies, particularly his native Guyana, and he has come a long way from his first fifty in his first Test versus England in 1993–94 at Bourda to his current status as a former captain.

In April 2006, Chanderpaul resigned as West Indies captain in order to concentrate on his batting. He captained a weak West Indies team, and his record was not a successful one. In fourteen Tests he won one and lost ten with three draws. In sixteen One Day Internationals, he won two and lost fourteen. Later in the month the captaincy was restored to veteran batsman Brian Lara.

Chanderpaul has recently reached the milestone of 100 Test caps, the 8th West Indian to do so and the first of East Indian descent.

2007 Tour of England[link]

With the Lara era of West Indian cricket reaching a conclusion, Chanderpaul emerged as the West Indies senior batsman. In the 2007 West Indies tour of England, Chanderpaul averaged 148.66 with the bat. This included two undefeated centuries in the third and fourth Tests. His 116 not out in the third Test, almost won the game for the tourists, until wickets of tail-end batsmen began to fall quickly, leaving him stranded, as England completed a 60-run victory. During the third Test match Chanderpaul went past 7,000 runs in Test cricket, a feat only accomplished by six other West Indians: Brian Lara, Sir Vivian Richards, Sir Garfield Sobers, Desmond Haynes, Gordon Greenidge and Clive Lloyd. He was jointly named Man of the Series alongside England's Monty Panesar. Despite batting at number 5 in the Tests, he was promoted to number 3 in the following One Day International series.

His success saw him signed up by Durham for the second half of the 2007 English county season. For his efforts in England in 2007, and other batting performances, Chanderpaul was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year 2008. Chanderpaul's efforts with the bat continue to win him many accolades as he was named ICC player of the year for 2008.

2008 Sri Lankan and Australian tours to the Caribbean[link]

In 2008 Chanderpaul continued in his form during the Sri Lankan and Australian tours of the Caribbean. During the 2008 season he rose to be ranked 5th in the Test batting rankings. By the end of the third test against Australia, Chanderpaul became the fourth West Indian batsman to accomplish 8,000 runs in Test cricket as well as rising in the ranks to 2nd of the ICC test rankings, just 4 points shy of becoming the world's number 1 ranked batsman. In the Test match series against the Australians, Chanderpaul had amassed 442 runs in 6 innings, in 3 of which he had remained not out, at an average of 147.33, including two centuries and three half-centuries. From the West Indies second innings in the first Test, he was not dismissed until the final day of the series – more than 1,000 minutes of batting without losing his wicket-the fourth time he has achieved this feat in Test cricket.

Records[link]

An innings-by-innings breakdown of Chanderpaul's Test match batting career, showing runs scored (red bars) and the average of the last ten innings (blue line).

Chanderpaul holds a number of batting records, in particular:

• Chanderpaul is one of only six players to have gone 1,000 minutes in Test cricket without conceding his wicket. He has done this four times, and is the only player to have done so more than once.
• He is also the only batsman in the history of Test cricket to have faced 1,000 consecutive balls without getting out.
• He is the one of only four batsmen to have averaged more than 100 in two different calendar years (*qualification 400 runs) and the only one other than Sir Donald Bradman to do so in consecutive years.
• Chanderpaul has scored the fourth fastest Test Hundred off 69 balls in the history of the game against Australia at Georgetown, Guyana.
• He is currently the highest run scorer for the West Indies, with over 10,000 test runs, having overtaken Viv Richards on 17 May 2009, and Brian Lara on 17 May 2012.
• He is one of only three players to score half-centuries in seven consecutive Test innings.
• He is the second West Indies batsman after Brian Lara (11,953 runs) to score 10,000 or more runs in test cricket.
• He is the most capped Test player of West Indian Cricket history as he has now stood in 140 Test Matches.

Test centuries[link]

The following table illustrates a summary of the Test centuries scored by Shivnarine Chanderpaul.

• In the column Runs, * indicates being not out.
• The column title Match refers to the Match Number of his career.

Test Centuries of Shivnarine Chanderpaul[6]
#	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year	Result
1	137*	19	India	Bridgetown, Barbados	Kensington Oval	1997	Won
2	118	28	England	Georgetown, Guyana	Bourda	1998	Won
3	140	52	India	Georgetown, Guyana	Bourda	2002	Drawn
4	101*	54	India	Bridgetown, Barbados	Kensington Oval	2002	Won
5	136*	55	India	St. John's, Antigua	Antigua Recreation Ground	2002	Drawn
6	140	61	India	Kolkata, India	Eden Gardens	2002	Drawn
7	100	64	Australia	Georgetown, Guyana	Bourda	2003	Lost
8	104	66	Australia	St. John's, Antigua	Antigua Recreation Ground	2003	Won
9	109	70	South Africa	Durban, South Africa	Kingsmead	2003	Lost
10	101*	76	Bangladesh	Kingston, Jamaica	Sabina Park	2004	Won
11	128*	77	England	London, England	Lord's	2004	Lost
12	203*	81	South Africa	Georgetown, Guyana	Bourda	2005	Drawn
13	127	84	South Africa	St. John's, Antigua	Antigua Recreation Ground	2005	Drawn
14	153*	85	Pakistan	Bridgetown, Barbados	Kensington Oval	2005	Won
15	116*	103	England	Manchester, England	Old Trafford	2007	Lost
16	136*	104	England	Chester-le-Street, England	Riverside Ground	2007	Lost
17	104	105	South Africa	Port Elizabeth, South Africa	St George's Park	2007	Won
18	118	110	Australia	Kingston, Jamaica	Sabina Park	2008	Lost
19	107*	111	Australia	North Sound, Antigua	Sir Vivian Richards Stadium	2008	Drawn
20	126*	114	New Zealand	Napier, New Zealand	McLean Park	2008	Drawn
21	147*	119	England	Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago	Queen's Park Oval	2009	Drawn
22	166	125	South Africa	Basseterre, St Kitts and Nevis	Warner Park	2010	Drawn
23	116*	133	India	Roseau, Dominica	Windsor Park	2011	Drawn
24	118	136	India	Delhi, India	Feroz Shah Kotla	2011	Lost
25	103*	138	Australia	Bridgetown, Barbados	Kensington Oval	2012	Lost

One Day International centuries[link]

One Day International Centuries of Shivnarine Chanderpaul[7]
#	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year	Result
1	109*	42	India	Bridgetown, Barbados	Kensington Oval	1997	Won
2	150	56	South Africa	East London, South Africa	Buffalo Park	1999	Won
3	108*	114	New Zealand	Gros Islet, St Lucia	Beausejour Stadium	2002	Won
4	101	205	Pakistan	Karachi, Pakistan	National Stadium	2006	Lost
5	149*	206	India	Nagpur, India	VCA Ground	2007	Lost
6	102*	211	Ireland	Kingston, Jamaica	Sabina Park	2007	Won
7	116*	219	England	Birmingham, England	Edgbaston	2007	Won
8	127*	223	Zimbabwe	Harare, Zimbabwe	Harare Sports Club	2007	Lost
9	107*	237	Pakistan	Abu Dhabi, UAE	Sheikh Zayed Stadium	2008	Lost
10	112*	243	England	Providence, Guyana	Providence Stadium	2009	Won
11	101	257	Canada	Kingston, Jamaica	Sabina Park	2010	Won

References[link]

• Player profile: Shivnarine Chanderpaul from ESPNcricinfo
• Shiv Chanderpaul Fan Site
• Chanderpaul's record innings puts Windies on top
• Interview from Yahoo!
• Chanderpaul resigns as captain from Cricinfo
• Chanderpaul signs up for Hong Kong Cricket Sixes
• S Rajesh (April 13, 2012). "The best Test batsmen at home". ESPNcricinfo. http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/561046.html. Retrieved 14 April 2012. 

Notes[link]

v t e Guyana squad – Current Squad 2 R Crandon 6 Chanderpaul 10 Dowlin 11 Christian † 20 Bishoo 25 Foo 28 Deonarine 33 Wintz 53 Sarwan (c) 54 E Crandon 65 Chattergoon 71 Cush 90 Barnwell — Jacobs — Fudadin — Ramdeen Coach: Seeram

Sir Viv Richards

Personal information
Full name	Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards
Born	(1952-03-07) 7 March 1952 (age 60) St. John's, Antigua
Nickname	Master Blaster, Smokey, Smokin Joe, King Viv
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Batting style	Right-handed
Bowling style	Right-arm medium/off-break
Role	Batsman
International information
National side	West Indies
Test debut (cap 151)	22 November 1974 v India
Last Test	8 August 1991 v England
ODI debut (cap 14)	7 June 1975 v Sri Lanka
Last ODI	27 May 1991 v England
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1990–1993	Glamorgan
1976–1977	Queensland
1974–1986	Somerset
1971–1991	Leeward Islands
1971–1981	Combined Islands
Career statistics
Competition	Test	ODI	FC	LA
Matches	121	187	507	500
Runs scored	8,540	6,721	36,212	16,995
Batting average	50.23	47.00	49.40	41.96
100s/50s	24/45	11/45	114/162	26/109
Top score	291	189*	322	189*
Balls bowled	5,170	5,644	23,226	12,214
Wickets	32	118	223	290
Bowling average	61.37	35.83	45.15	30.59
5 wickets in innings	0	2	1	3
10 wickets in match	0	n/a	0	n/a
Best bowling	2/17	6/41	5/88	6/24
Catches/stumpings	122/–	100/–	464/1	238/–
Source: cricketarchive.com, 18 August 2007

Viv Richards' career performance graph.

Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards, KNH, OBE (born 7 March 1952) is a former West Indian cricketer. Known as Viv (or King Viv^[1]), Richards was voted one of the five Cricketers of the Century in 2000, by a 100-member panel of experts, along with Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Jack Hobbs and Shane Warne.^[2] In February 2002, he was judged by Wisden to have played the best One Day International (ODI) innings of all time.^[3] In December 2002, he was chosen by Wisden as the greatest ODI batsman of all time, as well as the third greatest Test batsman of all time, after Sir Don Bradman and Sachin Tendulkar.^[4]

Personality and playing style[link]

Richards was a very powerful right-handed batsman with an extremely attacking style, besides being an excellent fielder, and a handy off-spin bowler. He is often regarded as the most devastating batsman that ever played the game by cricketers, journalists, fans and others alike,^[5][6] and played his entire career without a helmet, across the 17 years from 1974 till 1991.^[5][6][7]

Several prominent personalities including former cricketer and legendary fast bowler and all-rounder Imran Khan and noted writer John Birmingham are of the opinion that Richards was the best ever batsman against genuine fast bowling.^[8][9] Many other former players of the game rate him extremely high overall as a batsman. For Barry Richards, Ravi Shastri and Neil Fairbrother, he remains the best batsman they ever witnessed.^[10][11][12] Wasim Akram rates Richards the greatest batsman he ever bowled to, ahead of Sunil Gavaskar and Martin Crowe.^[13] Martin Crowe, arguably the greatest batsman to have ever emerged from New Zealand, rates Viv Richards as the best batsman he played against along with Greg Chappell. Richards was also Crowe's cricketing idol along with Donald Bradman, Garfield Sobers and Greg Chappell.^[14]

The ICC came out with their rankings for the best batsmen and bowlers in the history of the game for both the longer and shorter versions. The ratings for Test Cricket had Vivian Richards ranked at 6 equal after Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Len Hutton, Sir Jack Hobbs, Ricky Ponting and Peter May.^[15] The ODI ratings again had Richards comfortably perched at 1 followed by Zaheer Abbas and Greg Chappell.^[16] These rankings were based on the level achieved by the batsmen at their respective peaks.

In 2004, in a poll by ESPN, participated in by 15 of the leading names in cricketing history, Richards was voted the third greatest ever player after Bradman and Sobers, and the second greatest ever batsman after Bradman.^[17] He was also voted the greatest cricketer since 1970 by another poll ahead of Ian Botham and Shane Warne.^[18] That poll saw both Botham and Warne vote for Richards, and in the opinions of both, Richards is the greatest batsman they ever saw. In 2006, in a study done by a team of ESPN's Cricinfo magazine, Richards was again chosen the greatest ODI Batsman ever.^[19] Former cricketer Derek Pringle also rates Richards to be the best batsman ever in the history of Limited Overs Cricket.^[20]