Cricket legend new high commissioner to Jamaica

Former Trinidad and West Indies test cricketer Deryck Murray has been appointed to TT’s High Commissioner to Jamaica.

Businessman Edward Ayin was also named as high commissioner to Canada. This is not the first time Murray has served as a diplomat. Between 1978 and1989, Murray held the posting of representative to the United Nations in New York, where he served as vice chairman of the Fifth Committee and chairman of the Committee for Programme and Coordination.

The 75-year-old Murray, also previously served as chairman of the TT Transparency Institute, as well as president of the TT Cricket Board and was recently appointed SporTT director.

Murray studied at the University of Nottingham (UoN) and Jesus College, Cambridge in the UK after graduating from Queen’s Royal College. He was recently inducted into the UoN Hall of Fame.

As a cricketer, Murray captained TT from 1976-1981, and was vice-captain of the West Indies teams that won the 1975 and the 1979 Cricket World Cups. Murray’s glovework effected 189 Test dismissals and greatly enhanced the potency of the WI bowling attack when the team was at the top of the game.

During his test career (1963-1980), Murray amassed 1993 runs at an average of 22.9, while he scored 294 runs in his 26 ODI matches, with an average of 24.5.

In his 20-year first class career that started in 1961, Murray scored 13,325 runs at an average of 28.2.

But it was his wicket-keeping that gave him prominence. He took 181 test catches and eight stumpings, in ODIs 37/1 and in first class matches 740/108 Murray also played for Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire in England.