Chanderpaul upbeat about his new role

Amid the sponsorship imbroglio surrounding Caribbean cricket, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the newly-appointed West Indies captain, is upbeat about his new role in the side and positive about the team playing to its ability in the first Test against South Africa which starts on March 31. Chanderpaul was named the captain after Brian Lara choose not to accept the invitation by the West Indies cricket board to join the team, owing to the omission of other players.

"I'm feeling ok and I have done some captaincy for my country and also on tours for West Indies so it's nothing strange to me," said Chanderpaul to the Caribbean Media Corporation. "It's just that it's my first time in Test cricket, which might be a little different, but it shouldn't be so much of a difference. It's all cricket so I'm not worried too much about it."

Chanderpaul, who has led Guyana on several occasions, was also appointed the vice-captain for the VB Series in Australia. The selectors have named three debutants in the squad for the first Test in Guyana: Narsingh Deonarine, Dwight Washington and Donovan Pagon. "I'm positive, we all are positive and once we play to our abilities - and all the guys are very talented - and once we can play to that and play better than South Africa we will win."

West Indies have a poor record against South Africa, having won just two of the 15 matches played between the two teams. However, Graeme Smith, the South African captain, has expressed his concerns about facing a newly shaped team. "It is an issue in some ways that we are not too aware of what we are coming up against, but we have to find out as much information as we can on the guys," said Smith to The Jamaica Observer. "I think it boils down to ourselves. If we really concentrate on performing well, getting our things right, our game right, it will be beneficial to us.

"So we really should be concentrating on our own game and making sure we are a 100 per cent ready by the time we get into that Test match and thinking on our feet out in the middle is another crucial point."