“Deryck Lance Murray – Reflective, thoughtful, worried, hopeful”

Oct 31, 2010 Sports

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(PART 1 OF 2)

Colin E. H. Croft
From 1960 to the present, Deryck Lance Murray has seen it all in West Indies cricket.
Colin Croft (CC):  What is happening to West Indies cricket, especially recently?
Deryck Lance Murray (DLM):  Having been 50 plus years involved in West Indies cricket, what is happening now is unbelievable.  It would take much time to go into ‘why.’  One cannot imagine how far downhill things have gone, even as we talk about progress and things becoming better.
My ambition was always to play cricket for West Indies.  I established myself, then thought; ‘I must leave West Indies cricket better off than when I came.’  I certainly did that.
Around the mid-1980’s, the philosophy of West Indies’ cricket administration changed, pretending that cricket should be run by businessmen who have no idea about cricket; cannot run cricket any more than can they run NASA’s space programmes.
It is totally downhill; out of control!
CC:  We started in that straight line, downward trend, about 1995, when Bishop, Richardson, Haynes, etc., started leaving the team then.  We have had several CEO’s and Presidents, too, mostly businessmen, since.  Meanwhile, West Indies cricket is now something of an asterisk, with no respect anywhere anymore, from anyone.
DLM:  Overall, West Indies cricket has become almost irrelevant.
One of the easiest mistakes to make is exactly what you have just said; that our cricket started going downhill from 1985.  It was not 1995.  Everything that happened later had its origins 10 years previously; mid-1980’s.
As each successful player of that era left, we kept saying, ‘Australia has an academy; England is doing this; South Africa, when it comes back in, plans doing that, with their development.’
We went blithely along, with these businessmen supposedly running cricket, based on the philosophy that West Indies had such talent that we will continue to win.  All that they had to do was wait, be around, to get the glory.
We all saw the signs and asked; ‘What are we doing to develop our cricket?  It is going backwards.’  Not many of our administrators have changed since then.
Numerous Presidents and CEO’s are symptoms of not being able to make any changes.  There is this core of administrators, not just at West Indies Cricket Board level, but in territorial boards, who are just there, just in case WI cricket suddenly turns that corner.  They have no vision, no idea what needs to be done, to get West Indies back on track.
CC:  Some claim that more cricket is being played, by more people, than ever.  England “A” and Canada will even play in our 2011 competitions!
DLM:  It is all cosmetic.  We had previously had England “A” in our four-day (Carib Beer) series.  Just suppose that a foreign team wins our T-20 championship 2011.  Are they going to represent the West Indies in next year’s Champions League?
There is much talk about development for 13-15 year olds, all looking good on paper, but, look at the people running these programmes.  It is just jobs for the boys.  I have not yet seen one proper programme where cricket development is the main focus.
The hailed High Performance Centre has started.  Great, we have an academy!  Our secondary schools should feed that academy.  Why are we not focusing, in each territory, on secondary schools cricket?
People are annoyed when I say that Jamaica’s athletics programme is based on its schools.  Schools’ athletics championships is the biggest event on Jamaica’s sports calendar.
Jamaica has finalists in every world athletics competition – men’s and women’s – 100 metres to 800 metres.  We are amazed.  We say; ‘they are eating dasheen and yam.’
Is this by accident; by coincidence?  They have programmes.  Why can cricket not do that?
Cricket had such a programme, in an informal way, in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s.  There were no coaches with fancy certificates, or certified blue-prints, but we all knew where to find our teachers, coaches and mentors.  Our development came through our schools’ systems, and we were totally successful.
CC:  Many say that cricket has changed; cricket business has changed.  The focus is no longer on representation, but on finances – players refuse US$120,000 per year!
DLM:  Cricket has not changed.  Batting, bowling, fielding, wicketkeeping, are exactly the same.  The principles that made Headley, Bradman, Constantine, Worrell and Weekes into great cricketers are the same that make Lara, Ponting and Tendulkar great cricketers.
The finances and business have changed.  Cricket’s power base has moved from England and Australia, to India.  The game is played is the same way, with positive movements in fitness and strength levels.
This player situation is unique to West Indies cricket.  You do not see England turning up, and not knowing if their players are coming to play.  Flintoff tried to free-lance, but that was within the context of him being available to play when England needed him.
India, Australia, South Africa and England do not have problems with their players not wanting to play for their teams.  Only the West Indies has that problem.
I do not begrudge Pollard, Bravo and Gayle any opportunities to maximize their earnings.  That is happening all over the world, except in the West Indies.  That is WICB and West Indies Players Association; let us not forget WIPA in this equation, as they are as detrimental to our cricket as WICB.
If they cannot work out a system – simply replicate what other Test-playing countries do – that is the fault of West Indies cricket administrators, not the players involved.
If the system was right, the players would do the same as Hussey, Dravid, Dominy etc., playing commercial cricket, making maximum income, world-wide, and still play regional cricket, and representative international cricket.  Managing cricket in the West Indies has changed, to its detriment.  Unfortunately, it will get worse.
CC:  Can we see an upward trend soon; becoming compatible with the real cricket world?
DLM:  We must change the philosophy that runs our cricket; WICB and players.  We need much clearer vision.  We cannot change direction doing the same things as usual.  I do not mean cosmetic things.  Look, one of the things from the last WICB meeting is that the Under-15 and Under-19 tournaments will be in August.  Big deal!    That is exactly when those should be held, when the kids are on holidays.
We need revolutionary thinking.  If that cannot come from people controlling WICB and players, then change those people.
CC:  How will those changes come about?
DLM:  When the WICB was formed, it was manned by people who had genuine interests in West Indies cricket, and we complained that they were not paying attention to our incomes.  It took Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket, circa 1977, to show how to make money from the game.
Apart from finances, the cricket side was taken care of, if not on a professional basis.  We ensured that cricket and cricket development were discussed and took place, through the sugar estates and the oil companies, etc.  We had programmes that got all schools playing cricket; all clubs involved.  It was always competitive and cricket was always tops!
(MORE TO COME IN PART 2 OF 2 – NEXT WEEK)

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