An interim administration is among Deryck Murray’s suggestions
Former West Indies wicketkeeper Deryck Murray is the latest on a long list of past players to raise concerns regarding the current state of cricket in the region. The 82-year-old has questioned the “direction” of West Indies cricket, as well as Cricket West Indies’ ability to competently address the long-standing issues plaguing the sport, including poor on-field results.
While the West Indies batted valiantly in the second innings of the first Test against New Zealand to earn a draw, the crux of the matter for the Trinbagonian is something else. “We get a one-off performance like that every few months,” Murray soft-pedalled, “maybe every year, and we think we've turned the corner—we are not at the corner; we are on a roundabout.”
Speaking on Mason and Guest, Murray went on to question, “Who is steering the car? Which direction are we trying to go in? What is happening?” He predicts that without an overhaul of CWI, the West Indies will eventually lose its value in international cricket.
“I think we have reached a very significant point in West Indies cricket where the future can take [one of] two extreme courses,” he began to explain. “One is that we maintain the status quo, and we continue to drift into irrelevance.”
According to the former West Indies vice-captain, CWI’s open-mindedness and acceptance of individual territories competing at the Olympics foreshadow a changing tide. “I am very, very disappointed that the West Indies board has not approached the International Olympic Committee for special dispensation for there to be a West Indies cricket team—that has been in existence for 100 years—to be represented at the Olympics,” Murray passioned.