By Rajiv Bisnauth

SELDOM does one get to witness a fall as dramatic as that of the West Indies cricket team in international cricket.
The decline of West Indies cricket has been in the making for long, but it has accelerated over the past two decades, due to a number of factors.
However, former West Indies wicketkeeper Deryck Murray is of the view that the region’s governing body should take full responsibility for the decline of the game after they unsurprisingly failed to put in place a structure to build on success.

“We need that structure from primary school level right up to the elite level. That is shaky at the moment. It has been for quite a number of years in West Indies cricket, so let’s not look at what some people do on the field and think that’s going to paper over anything else that happens.
“We need to take a long, serious look at West Indies cricket. Some people have to make some serious decision … give-up position etc,” said the 77-year-old Murray during an interview on the Mason and Guest Radio programme on Tuesday evening in Barbados.

Murray, the Trinidadian, further added: “We need to start thinking above board the state of West Indies cricket, and we need to have something in place that our domestic cricket at all levels is strong enough to sustain a team that can move from the number eight or nine or wherever we are in all formats of the game and be at the top where West Indies cricket belongs.”
To this end, Murray, who served as a diplomat in the Foreign Service of Trinidad and Tobago after his cricket career, made it clear that there must be a guiding principle from all stakeholders, since anything less will be detrimental to the wellbeing as a cricketing nation.

“There has to be the guiding principle on which all of us make decisions and access what is happening in West Indies cricket; anything less than that is detrimental to our own wellbeing as a cricketing nation,” he concluded.
Murray’s sentiments were recently shared by head coach Phil Simmons and white-ball captain Kieron Pollard where the duo openly stated that West Indies cricket lacks structure and investment, not talent.
Simmons and Pollard are of the view that a lot needs to be done administratively and by the players, if things are to change for the better.
Debate has swirled around the failings of the West Indies and what, if anything, can be done to bring about a reversal of fortunes.