BY ANDI THORNHILL

DON'T CRY for Shivnarine Chanderpaul. The former West Indies captain must now be one of the happiest men in the world. His resignation from the top post last week cut loose the albatross that was happy to be around his neck for the past 18 months.

The burden of the captaincy had turned one of the world's leading batsmen into one of the most vulnerable and circumspect. For instance, he was unable to score a single half century in his last dozen innings.

Unlike those before him – Carl Hooper and Brian Lara – his batting declined after he took over the leadership of the team.

The downside of this is that without any meaningful contribution in his area of strength, he would have been unable to inspire his subordinates in times of trouble which was consistent with the team's inconsistent performances in a decade.

It was not anything new, but after a single Test win and a couple of victories in One-Day Internationals, you would be bound to ask yourself some questions and the man in the mirror was likely to reach the same conclusions as Chanderpaul.

It was time to go and let someone else take up the challenge of trying to steady a ship losing direction and the sighting of land looking very remote at this time.

The truth is that he and coach Bennett King took the brunt of the criticism for the team's failings. That's par for the course under normal circumstances. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.

In fact, one member became so disillusioned with King's showing that the West Indies Cricket Board was forced to appoint a committee to evaluate the Australian's tenure. He may have been given the greenlight to continue his work but after the poor display in New Zealand there have been renewed calls for his removal as coach.

Chanderpaul, in my opinion, jumped before he was pushed. The captain's job is unforgiving. Most of the time he looked at sea as far as tactics in the middle was concerned.

He did not seem to be his own man.

At one stage he intimated that he was taking orders from the dressing room. If this was the case, it would suggest that there was a lack of confidence in Chanderpaul to do the job.

In all fairness, he did not beg for the job. It was thrust upon him in the midst of turmoil between the players and their representatives, The West Indies Players Association, over the Digicel deal and the players' contracts.

There were major rows preceding tours to Australia and Sri Lanka, the latter being very acrimonious with some of the leading players choosing not to tour.

It was asking too much for any team, far less one with a perpetual losing streak, to perform effectively under such conditions, even though we should concede that the second string side that went to Sri Lanka acquitted itself well.

Chanderpaul, though, proved not to be the man for these testing times. Gradually, his presence started to crumble like the dynasty of West Indies cricket. I don't think he was commanding the respect of his troops as his ability to lead from in front had clearly diminished.

Whoever is chosen to replace him will not automatically find the solution to the problem of reviving our cricket to its former glory, but they may very well see what it is like to be thrown into the fire.

In the end, it became much too hot for Chanderpaul and he was melting in the heat. There should be much rejoicing that he has been saved from what could have been an untimely cricketing death.