David Murray, the former wicketkeeper for the West Indies, has away in his native Barbados at the age of 72. His life and career were destroyed by his tragic choice to take part in the rebel tours of South Africa in the 1980s.
Murray Weekes, the illustrious Sir Everton Weekes’ son, represented the West Indies in 19 Tests and ten One-Day Internationals between 1973 and 1982. The great fast bowlers of that era, like Malcolm Marshall and Michael Holding, praised Murray as the best gloveman they had ever played with.
The unfortunate thing for Murray was that his career was framed by two of the most illustrious Caribbean wicketkeepers of all time: his namesake (but unrelated) Deryck Murray, who kept him out of the Test team for much of his prime, and then, at the beginning of the 1980s, his younger rival Jeff Dujon, who once admitted that Murray’s silky skills made his own glovework look like “Dolly Parton,” but whose superior batting brooked no argument with the
However, Murray’s addiction to marijuana, which he had developed at the age of 13, ultimately led to his demise both as a cricketer for the international team and as a member of society after he made the fateful choice to accept US$125,000 to tour Apartheid South Africa in the winter of 1983. His final decades were spent in his native Barbados, where he sold narcotics to visitors and made money off of his notoriety while living in abject poverty.
Murray had been adamant that his drug use was advantageous to his cricket in the early stages of his career when the quality of his glovework was winning accolades and with the fast-tracking, that came from being the son of a West Indies great.
News Mania Desk
