PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) – Coming on the heels of a wretched tour of Australia, former West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) director Deryck Murray believes the embattled senior squad should field a mixture of  youth and experienced players against Zimbabwe in the one-day series starting next weekend.
Murray, a former West Indies vice-captain, contended the regional side would benefit more from including several Young Windies players in the lineup for the five One-Day Internationals and one Twenty20 match.
“The selectors should use some of the Under-19 players and mix them with some of the young players from the present squad,” said Murray, who was ousted last year as the Trinidad & Tobago Cricket Board president.
“If the same players from the tour Down Under play, they will make runs. However this will only lead to a false achievement.”
West Indies have endured a torrid time against Australia and with one match left to play, are still searching for their first win on the tour.
They suffered heavy losses in the first two ODIs, plunging to a 113-run defeat in Melbourne in the opening match before losing by eight wickets in Adelaide in the second match.
The Sydney encounter was rained out with the Windies facing a daunting target and the fourth match finished in a 50-run loss in Brisbane. Their attempts to avoid a whitewash were in vain as they produced a pathetic all-round performance in the final match to go under by 125 runs in Melbourne.
Murray said the WICB needed to do something to address the side’s decline as the tour had served up nothing to indicate development.
“There was nothing significant to say that the team is turning the corner. The performance was miserable and something has to be done,” said the 66-year-old who played 62 Tests between 1963 and 1980.
“There is need for a total revamp of the whole system, and hopefully the Board and WIPA could get their acts together and help in this effort.
“We need all the territories and the board to start focusing from the grassroots level and try to build a team which could see the Windies back at the top of world cricket in the next seven years, and not hoping for something to happen overnight.”
West Indies play their final match – a T20I – against Australia in Sydney today before returning to the Caribbean on Thursday.