Perched on a stool at the rum-fuelled Pirate’s Cove bar near Bridgetown, Barbados, sat a painfully thin Bajan with greying matted dreadlocks framing his cadaverous face. He was an outcast in the Caribbean after touring South Africa in the apartheid era and had now squandered all his Krugerrand. David Murray had once been arguably the best wicketkeeper in West Indies cricketing history.
Jeff Dujon, who took Murray’s place when his life spiralled out of control in the early 1980s, said that, standing up to the stumps when keeping wicket to slow bowlers, “David made me look like Dolly Parton.” This art, however, was going out of fashion as West Indies settled on an all-pace attack with no more than one part-time spinner. Murray fell back on dealing drugs in addition to what West Indians called “blood money” for playing in South Africa despite a worldwide sports ban.
David Anthony Murray’s difficulties had begun at birth. His father was Sir Everton Weekes (obituary, July 2, 2020), one of the greatest West Indian batsmen, but because he was born out of wedlock he did not take the same surname. His mother moved to England, he was brought up by a grandmother and began smoking cigarettes at 11 and marijuana at 13, before discovering hashish in India. Later, an affair wrecked his marriage to an Australian arts student. All that was in his favour was an ability to play cricket.
Even then, another Murray — Deryck, a Trinidadian and no relation — kept him out of West Indies’ side until he was 28. His Test debut came about only because the well-established senior Murray joined Kerry Packer’s breakaway World Series Cricket, along with other prominent West Indians. In 1981, when David Murray was finally established as first choice, he became the joint West Indian record holder for dismissals in a Test — nine, against Australia. By now, his drug consumption was affecting him to the extent that his timekeeping was erratic, although he claimed marijuana enhanced his game. “The stronger it was, the more I would concentrate,” he said. “Sometimes it would be so strong I would be high all day.”
Weekes appeared to have little control over his son, although he still lived in Barbados, and ultimately was wary of seeing him in case an artefact was stolen that would be exchanged for drugs. Early in his career Murray had almost been sent home from Australia for drug use on West Indies’ 1975-76 tour. He played in 19 Tests in all but only ten as first choice wicketkeeper. Murray toured India twice, recorded his record nine dismissals against Australia in 1981-82 and was highly regarded by the prominent fast bowlers of the day, Malcolm Marshall and Michael Holding. As with the best of his ilk, the ball seemed to melt into his gloves.
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Although Murray made his highest score, an unbeaten 206 against East Zone, on one of the Indian tours, and was very much regarded as a wicketkeeper who could bat, his namesake came back into the side in 1980 after World Series Cricket, and Dujon’s talent, elegance and greater reliability meant that Murray’s Test career was evidently over by 1982. He himself felt he should have been retained after playing against Australia with a broken finger. Although Wisden stated he was unfit for the third and last Test of that series at Adelaide, Murray believed he was fit enough and took his demotion badly. He refused to return to the team hotel to collect his gear. In his 19 Tests he made 601 runs.
His frustration spilled over to the extent that he appeared in a magistrates’ court in Adelaide, charged with having assaulted a policeman and resisting arrest. The charges were dropped. Murray was an obvious recruit to be signed up for two breakaway tours of South Africa, undertaken by disaffected West Indian cricketers, which were largely incident-free. When his captain, Lawrence Rowe, told him after the first ball of the tour had been bowled, “That’s it — you won’t play for West Indies again,” Murray started blubbing and uncharacteristically his wicketkeeping became sloppy. Australia’s prime minister, Malcolm Fraser, who took a hard line against apartheid, banned Murray from entering the country. The ban was lifted after a backlash, but this was a foretaste of how hard it would be for Murray post-cricket. When he wasn’t being ostracised in Barbados, where he was banned from first-class cricket, friends were asking him for a contribution from his $125,000 fee for playing in South Africa.
Murray lived with two aunts in his later years in Barbados. He separated from his wife, Kerry McAleer, with whom he had a daughter, Ebony. He had a son from a previous relationship, Ricky Hoyte, who played for Barbados.
In The Unforgiven, an account of what occurred in later life to the West Indians who played in South Africa, Ashley Gray told a grim tale of destitution, drugs, alcohol abuse and running out of money. They were accused of not just having turned their backs on cricket in the Caribbean, but on their own people. Murray was tracked down to the south coast beaches on Barbados, where he begged and sold “his stuff”.
David Murray, cricketer, was born on May 29, 1950. He died after collapsing on November 26, 2022, aged 72