Sports

David Murray, West Indies’ unforgiven wicketkeeper, dies aged 72

Published

4 years ago

2022/11/28

David Murray, the former West Indies wicketkeeper whose life and career was ruined by his fateful decision to join the rebel tours of South Africa in the 1980s, has died in his native Barbados at the age of 72.Murray, son of the legendary Sir Everton Weekes, played a total of 19 Tests and ten ODIs for West Indies between 1973 and 1982, and was hailed by the great fast bowlers of his era – Malcolm Marshall and Michael Holding among them – as the finest gloveman that they had played with.

It was Murray’s misfortune that his career ended up being bookended by two of the most legendary Caribbean wicketkeepers of them all – his namesake (but no relation) Deryck Murray, who kept him out of the Test team for much of his pomp, and then at the start 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 selectors.

Ultimately, however, Murray’s predilection for marijuana – a habit that he had begun aged 13 – was the catalyst for his downfall, first as an international cricketer and then, after his fateful decision to accept US$125,000 to tour Apartheid South Africa in the winter of 1983, as a member of society too. His final decades were spent in poverty in his native Barbados, selling drugs to tourists in Bridgetown, and trading on his infamy.

In the early part of his career, while the quality of his glovework was earning plaudits, and with the fast-tracking that came from being the son of a West Indies great, Murray had been adamant that his drug use was beneficial to his cricket. “It gives you good meditation… concentration you know,” he told ESPNcricinfo’s Siddhartha Vaidyanathan back in 2006. “Not that you did it to enhance your performance … never in the breaks – you can’t do that.”

Within the West Indies set-up, however, Murray could never shake the suspicion that his face did not fit, particularly while Deryck – Cambridge-educated and a key lieutenant to Clive Lloyd – was the favoured wicketkeeper. And when, after nearly a decade as the squad’s understudy, he did finally made his Test debut, against Australia in March 1978, it was due in large part to Deryck’s decision to join Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket. It was a source of much frustration – and arguably a factor in his subsequent South Africa decision – that he lost his place again the following year, when the Packer players were reinstated.

In his brief time as the Test No.1, Murray still managed to score three half-centuries, with a best of 84 against India in Bombay in 1978-79, as well as a first-class double-hundred in Jamshedpur on the same tour.However, Murray had already been in trouble with the team management for his off-field antics, notably on the 1975-76 tour of Australia, when it took the intervention of Lance Gibbs to spare him an early flight home. And matters came to a head on West Indies’ return to Australia in 1981-82, where the emergence of Dujon gave the selectors a reason to dispense of a talented but increasingly erratic player.

Bad luck played a major part in Murray’s downfall, too. Early on the tour, he had broken his middle finger while attempting to catch a drive off Lloyd in the nets, but having played through the pain with supreme skill – taking a West Indies’ record nine catches in the first Test at Melbourne – he was rested for the subsequent one-dayers, allowing Dujon to make his case for a permanent berth with a match-winning fifty at the MCG.

Murray reacted badly to Dujon’s promotion. With his drug use now causing him to sleep through team meetings, he turned up for 12th-man duties at the subsequent Adelaide Test without his equipment, and was expelled from the tour by manager Steve Camacho after refusing to take the water cart onto the field.The die was cast for Murray’s recruitment on the South Africa rebel tour. The previous winter, a 12-man party of England cricketers, led by Graham Gooch, had flown into Johannesburg for a month-long tour that contravened the 1977 Gleneagles Agreement discouraging sporting relations with the Apartheid regime.

Compared to the mild censure (and swift forgiveness) that would come to the England players, however, the opprobrium heaped upon the West Indies tourists would be something else entirely. Murray’s tour fee, which he would quickly squander on “jeeps, new cars and partying out”, would be of no lasting benefit in the years to come.

“I f***ed up,” Murray told Ashley Gray, author of the award-winning Unforgiven, which recounted the tale of the West Indian rebels. His first on-field act in South Africa had been to take a catch off Sylvester Clarke in a tour match against Border, but that, as he told Gray, had been a crushing moment in itself. “Lawrence Rowe said to me as a joke, ‘You can’t play for West Indies anymore.’ Only one delivery. It felt bad.”

Murray’s personal life was upended by the South Africa decision, too. In the latter weeks of the Australian tour, he had married his fiancée Kerry McAteer in a private ceremony in Adelaide, but after initially being refused re-entry to the country due to a visa ban implemented by the anti-Apartheid prime minister, Malcolm Fraser, an ill-judged affair cemented his estrangement from his wife and new-born child, and left him rootless and ostracised back in his native Barbados.

He returned home to a “vibe” of rejection, Murray related in Unforgiven. “‘He sold his birthright’. They don’t forget. They are narrow-minded. I still cop it. ‘He is a traitor’. I have no regrets.”

His response was to turn to harder drugs, including cocaine, which in turn deepened his estrangement from his father, who feared he would steal from him to subsidise his habit. For the final decades of his life, Murray was skeletal-thin with matted dreadlocks framing his increasingly gaunt features.

Nevertheless, in 1989, the West Indies Cricket Board rescinded its lifetime ban on the South Africa rebels, and to the extent that forgiveness was achieved in the Caribbean, it was available in Barbados. One of Murray’s fellow rebels, Ezra Moseley, went on to play Test cricket – famously breaking Gooch’s hand in the Trinidad Test in 1990, while Murray’s own son, Ricky Hoyte, was Barbados wicketkeeper in the 1990s, and might have broken into the Test team too had he not shared some of his father’s wayward (if less self-destructive) traits.

Murray himself, however, remained a self-imposed outcast to the end.

(cricinfo)

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Sri Lanka look to their bowlers against big-hitting West Indies

Published

3 hours ago

2026/06/11

Priyan

We are more than a week into this tour, and it feels like it’s barely begun. The first ODI went off without too much of a hitch, but the next two were washed out without a ball bowled, Kingston rains crashing the party. Unfortunately, the threat of rain hangs over this opening T20I too – with thunderstorms threatening on Thursday afternoon, which could affect the viability of the Sabina Park outfield later in the day (8.30pm local time is the start).

Unlike with ODIs, this is a format in which one of these teams is the favourite. West Indies were one victory away from knocking India out of their own home World Cup, while Sri Lanka spent much of the Super Eight in the recent global tournament fighting merely to prove they belonged. In India, West Indies showed their six-hitting strategy could still make waves. On top of which they have a much more successful franchise T20 product in the CPL than Sri Lanka has had with the LPL. Over many seasons, these sorts of advantages add up.

While West Indies clearly have the batting pedigree heading into this series, Sri Lanka will hope that their bowlers can make the contest more even. Wanidu Hasaranga has wreaked T20 havoc before in the Caribbean. In Dushmantha Chameera, they have a bowler who has shown he is in good rhythm on tour.

West Indies have excellent T20 bowlers too, Gudakesh Motie and Akeal Hosein especially. But the kind of firepower they possess in the batting order Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, Jason Holder and the like – Sri Lanka have rarely ever had, even at their T20 pinnacle.

Shimron Hetmyer had a pretty abysmal IPL with Rajasthan Royals, hitting only 78 for them from his seven innings. This is strange, because in the T20 World Cup preceding the IPL, he had crashed 248 runs at a strike rate of 186, and was legitimately the batting star in the West Indies line-up as they threatened to make a deep run in the tournament. He had not been selected in the only ODI West Indies played against Sri Lanka, but coach Darren Sammy and Co. would be hoping he rediscovers some of his World Cup form in this series.

Wanindu Hasaranga remains one of Sri Lanka’s most prized white ball assets. But over the years, as the franchise contracts have piled up, so have the kilograms, and as a consequence, the injuries. He’s one of the few top spinners in the world, for example, who has recurring hamstring complaints. His bowling record in the West Indies is genuinely spectacular, though, but perhaps it’s getting to the stage of his career when he is required to produce the kinds of performances that remind fans – and selectors – what makes him a special white ball cricketer.

West Indies may revert to their preferred World Cup XI to get some momentum into this tour.

West Indies (possible): Shai Hope (capt, wk), Roston Chase, Shimron Hetmyer, Sherfane Rutherford, Rovman Powell, Jason Holder, Romario Shepherd, Matthew Forde, Gudakesh Motie, Akeal Hosein Shamar Joseph

Sri Lanka may continue to trial Kamindu Mendis at the top of the order. Fast bowler Eshan Malinga is likely to get into the XI after a good IPL. Dasun Shanaka will probably reclaim a spot in the lower-middle order as well. The state of the surface may also determine whether they play a spin-bowling allrounder (likely Dunith Wellalage) or a seam-bowling allrounder (Milan Rathnayake).

Sri Lanka (possible): Pathum Nissanka, Kamindu Mendis, Kusal Mendis (capt, wk), Pavan Rathnayake, Charith Asalanka, Dasun Shanaka, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dunith Wellalage/Milan Rathnayake, Dushmantha Chameera, Eshan Malinga, Nuwan Thushara

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Edgbaston takes center stage as England, Sri Lanka kick off T20 World Cup

Published

6 hours ago

2026/06/11

Priyan

Chamari Athapaththu will once again be key to SL's success [Cricinfo]

Hosts England will take on Sri Lanka at Edgbaston. The match is set to begin at 6.30pm local time (5.30pm GMT).

England hold an advantage in this contest, having won 10 out of the 12 T20Is between the sides. Sri Lanka though will draw confidence from recent history, having won the last two T20Is against England in 2023. This will be just the fourth time these two sides meet in the T20 World Cup.

England arrive at the tournament having won four out of the six matches since the start of the year, while Sri Lanka come in with momentum on their side, riding on five consecutive T20I wins that include series wins against West Indies and Bangladesh.

England (probable): Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Amy Jones, Nat Sciver-Brunt (capt), Alice Capsey, Heather Knight, Freya Kemp, Dani Gibson, Charlie Dean, Sophie Ecclestone, Linsey Smith, Lauren Bell

Sri Lanka (probable): Vishmi Gunaratne, Chamari Athapaththu (capt), Hasini Perera, Harshitha Samarawickrama, Hansima Karunaratne, Kavisha Dilhari, Nilakshika de Silva, Kaushini Nuthyangana (wk), Malki Madara, Sugandika Kumari, Kawya Kavindi/Chetana Vimukthi

Lauren Bell has been in spectacular form all year, starting with the WPL where she finished with 12 wickets in nine games and was often a handful with the new ball. After picking three wickets in two games against New Zealand, she bagged seven wickets in three matches in the T20I series win against India. She’s bowled at an economy of 7.4 this year, and the home conditions are likely to suit her perfectly.

All eyes will once again be on Chamari Athapaththu for Sri Lanka. In what will be her 10th T20 World Cup the 36-year old will be expected to do the heavy lifting for her side. She heads into the tournament in excellent touch, highlighted by a blistering 94 off 58 balls in the warm up against Pakistan. Her contributions with the ball could prove just as important – she picked up four wickets in three matches in the series against Bangladesh in May.

Weather and conditions

The forecast points to clear skies in Birmingham on Friday evening. There was however some rain in the area on the eve of the match.

[Cricinfo]

Features

Samarawickrama’s rise gives Sri Lanka a second pillar

Published

8 hours ago

2026/06/11

Priyan

Harshitha Samarawickrama's advance as a T20 batter has opened up a new frontier in Sri Lanka's batting performance [Cricinfo]

Harshitha Samarawickrema was 14 when Sri Lankan women’s cricket first pricked the national consciousness. She had already been playing cricket for her school, Gothami Balika Vidyalaya, but had largely pursued cricket merely for the sake of playing a sport, and also because she had enjoyed watching the men’s team play. But watching Sri Lanka defeat England in a thriller at the 2013 World Cup stirred up a deeper yearning.

“I’d watched all of the matches at that World Cup actually – that was the first time those kind of matches were telecast,” Samarawickrama said once. “That’s when I decided I was going to play and win matches for Sri Lanka one day.”

That victory against England was a new dawn for Sri Lanka’s women for two reasons. First up it was the highest-profile victory on their ledger until then, marking an unexpected high point in a World Cup in which little was generally expected of the team. But it also marked the rocket-powered arrival of Chamari Athapaththu, who top-scored with 62 to help set up the chase.

Thirteen years later, Samarawickrama has not only fulfilled her promise to herself, she has also helped Sri Lanka bring to life the promise of that 2013 campaign. Athapaththu, who has since has become the superstar around which Sri Lanka’s cricket orbits, has never known a more consistent batting collaborator than Samarawickrama. In T20Is, the pair have put on 1,202 runs together – easily the best for Sri Lanka. Though both are lefties who revel in pressure, that’s about where the similarities end – Athapaththu having grown up idolising the big-hitting of Sanath Jayasuriya, while Samarawickrama had been a disciple of the Kumar Sangakkara school of left-handed batting. (Samarawickrama still tries to replicate that famous bent-kneed cover drive, though she invariably sprinkles a little of of her own flair to the endeavour.) Oppositions have found this combination difficult to contend with, Athapaththu commanding through the legside and brutal on errors of length, while Samarawickrama flits around the crease and carves boundaries through cover and point.

It has been clear for years now that Sri Lanka’s chances in pretty much any match depend primarily on Athapaththu runs. But Samarawickrama’s advance as a T20 batter has now opened up a new frontier in the team’s batting performance. Ideally, what Sri Lanka want is not merely big runs from their captain, but a strong partnership between Athapaththu and Samarawickrama. In victories, the Athapaththu-Samarawickrama stand averages 41.38.

More tellingly, a good Samarawickrama innings has become as reliable a predictor of a strong Sri Lanka showing as a good Athapaththu innings. In T20I wins, Athapaththu averages 40.18 and strikes at 131, in comparison to 17.94 and a strike rate of 94 in losses. Samarawickrama’s corresponding numbers are even more stark. In Sri Lanka victories, Samarawickrama averages 44.08 with a strike rate of 109. In losses those numbers are 16.94 and 87. Other Sri Lanka batters have leveled up in recent years too – Kavisha Dilhari, Nilakshika Silva and Hasini Perera having become more frequent contributors, while 20-year-old Vishmi Gunaratne has also showed promise. But 11 years into her international career, Samarawickrama now has a serious body of work.

Samarawickrama had been modest in the shortest format in 2025, but she arrives at the Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 having had a good six months. Against Bangladesh in April, Samarawickrama had cracked 61 off 35, then 49 off 29, in back-to-back matches that Sri Lanka won (Samarawickrama was top-scorer on both occasions). This was in addition to having put up good numbers in the ODI series that preceded the T20Is. Her 36 not out off 34 in a comfortable warm-up win against Netherlands suggests she is still riding on that form.

This is the first T20 World Cup in which serious runs are expected of Samarawickrama, and if history is much to go by, she is not the sort to be daunted by occasion. Samarawickrama’s finest moments as a Sri Lanka cricketer had come in their most-celebrated win of all, in the Asia Cup final of 2024, against India. Typically, that chase of 166 in Dambulla had been propelled by an 87-run Athapaththu-Samarawickrama stand, but when Athapaththu was dismissed, Samarawickrama ensured she remained at the crease until the winning moments, hitting 69 not out off 51, ultimately collecting the Player-of-the-Match award.

If 2013 was a new dawn inspiring a fresh generation of Sri Lanka cricketers, 2024 was the year in which the team hammered its stake into the ground, breaking through into an entirely new galaxy of recognition and acclaim at home. Frequently batting in the shadow of Athapaththu, but always charting her own path, Samarawickrama has grown into a leader.

[Cricinfo]