Murray - Give players a say

Murray: Says players should have input

I'm not saying players should decide solely on who the captain should be - I don't think that's right - but I think the players should have a strong say.

Andy Murray
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World number four Andy Murray insists Britain's top players should be allowed input into who captains the Davis Cup team.

The Scot chose not to play in last weekend's tie against Lithuania, which saw John Lloyd's team lose 3-2 and left them within one defeat of crashing to the lowest tier of the tournament.

British number one Murray believes the nation's top players should be consulted if Lloyd is sacked or decides to quit the post, and should also have a say in who is hired as his replacement.

Voice

"The LTA have to decide whether they want to keep John in place. But if he does lose his job then I would like to think the players would have a voice," said Murray.

"I'm not saying players should decide solely on who the captain should be - I don't think that's right - but I think the players should have a strong say.

"It's not me that's having the say, it's the players collectively. I don't want to be responsible for everything in British tennis."

"That would involve getting all the players sitting down and discussing who all the possible candidates are to be the captain and then who the players are most comfortable with.

"We can at least go to the LTA or Roger (chief executive, Draper) or whoever and say 'this is who we would like'.

"And if they don't want them, then that's fine but at least we've voiced our opinion and then we have got to wait and see what happens."

Murray also believes those criticising the players and the team should keep their opinions to themselves unless they can offer constructive ways to improve the situation.

Negative

"I'm fed up of just reading negative stuff all the time and just constant bashing," added Murray.

"I think there need to be some more constructive things, people actually coming forward with ideas of what to do to improve, how we can get better as a nation.

"Every time I read something, it's like 'just build more courts and get more kids playing', which I agree with, but there needs to be [description of] how do you do that. How many courts, where do you put them, how many kids do you need playing and how you're going to teach them how to play tennis."