No pressure, my boy! - Shiv, Tage open up about being father-son teammates

NORTH SOUND, Antigua:

It is not often in professional sport that you see teams featuring a father-son duo. However, that relationship now exists in the Cricket West Indies Regional Super50 Cup tournament this year with Shivnarine Chanderpaul and son Tagenarine Chanderpaul. Both play for the Guyana Jaguars, who are in today's semi-final against the Windward Volcanoes at the Coolidge Cricket Ground in St John's, Antigua.

Shivnarine, at 43 years old, has been playing internationally since 1992, while 21-year-old Tagenarine, or Tage as he is called by teammates, made his debut in 2013.

Shivnarine likes having his son around in the team because it gives them quality time together as travelling the world throughout his career meant there was not as much father-son time as he would have wanted, with Tagenarine living with his mother.

NICE WAY TO LEARN

"It's a nice way for him to learn the game," Shivnarine said. "He's been around for a while. He had a good season in the Regional Four-Day tournament. It's the first time he had a full season, but that's just the beginning. He needs to keep going. He's young and he needs to learn as quickly as possible and take it a distance because whenever you get an opportunity, you have to grab it sometimes."

Tagenarine said he hopes to exhibit the patience he sees in his father and added that he is looking to have a career as long as his dad's. However, he said that he does not let the pressure of being the son of a cricketing icon get to him.

"I just try and be myself," Tagenarine said. "I can't be him, you know. Most of the training, I use him to get some help. He gives me a few pointers."

The duo said that there is no awkwardness between them in the locker room whenever pranks are played by teammates or banter takes place, which would embarrass other fathers and sons in their position.

"We still have our fun and have our jokes," Shivnarine explained. "In any team sport, you need to have fun. That's the only way to keep going. When I went into the Windies team, we had people who used to give us a lot of jokes - guys

like Kenneth Benjamin, Amby (Sir Curtly Ambrose). Those are the guys who keep you going on tour. I know how important that is. You need people like them around to keep you going. So yeah, you need those things, and there's a time when you make your jokes and a time to get serious and down to the business."

Tagenarine said that his father lets him be himself in the locker room.

"He knows how I am, so he's kinda free up with that," he laughed.

rachid.parchment@gleanerjm.com