Windwards Dump Junior Murray
The first class cricket career of former Test wicket keeper Junior Murray might have come to a premature end -- with Windward Island cricket selectors not giving him the honored exit they promised.Murray did not fly to Dominica with the Windward Islands team to play Barbados Saturday after the selectors apparently took a late decision to omit him from the team without discussing it with the captain, manager or coach.
The 39-year-old Murray was reportedly told by a member of the selection panel that he was to return to Grenada -- the decision coming so late that his playing gears actually ended up in Dominica with the rest of the team.
Windwards team management said they were surprised with the decision and was not officially informed about it. Dominica-based cricket correspondent Joseph Thomas said it was Murray who broke the news to team manager Lockhart Sebastien, who up to this afternoon was apparently not briefed on the circumstances surrounding the dropping of the veteran wicket-keeper. Murray did not keep wicket in the one-day game on Wednesday against Jamaica, with commentators saying at the time he seem to have had some type of finger injury. Murray batted well to score 44.
But Windward Island team sources say Murray was fit to play tomorrow if he was selected.
When asked about about Murray's fitness, team coach Ian Allen said he could not have been sent packing on fitness grounds. The coach, according to CaribUpdate correspondent Joseph Thomas, described him as the fittest player on the team.
Since December, there appeared to be under-currents with some members of the selection panel apparently to eager to have Murray retire from first-class cricket.
However, a compromised was reach and it was decided to make this his last season.
A statement from the selectors in December said they had a discussion with Murray about his retirement and he indicated he will quit at the end of the season.
But Murray, in an interview earlier this month, denied that he had any meeting with any selector about his retirement, and hinted that "some people" wanted to see him out of the team.
"I think that people are trying to get me out of it," Murray said in an interview with CaribUpdate three weeks ago.
"I have not told anyone that I am going to retire. I never told anyone about that," he declared.
"At the end of the day once my body is healthy, and I know my body is healthy, and I love my cricket and I love to perform and I'll do my best," the Grenadian wicket-keeper said.
"I think in the Caribbean , once a player reaches 30 everybody says he is old. But at the end of the day, if you are 30 or 40 and you producing the goods at a high standard, why would you try to get rid of the guy," Murray said.
"You are making room for the younger guys and they not produce anything. They (are) just giving them the job too easily. I think they have to wait their turn," Murray declared.
"Look at Brian (Lara). He waited a long time to get his turn and when he did, no one could have stopped him," he added.
Murray declared: "These young guys must get the hunger to perform first. Scoring runs has to become a habit."