KINGSTOWN (CMC):

Former West Indies wicketkeeper/batsman, Junior Murray will retire from regional and international cricket at the end of the 2007 regional first class season.

The 38-year-old Murray, who played 33 Tests and 55 one-day internationals for the West Indies, has been included in the Windward Islands 14-man squad announced this week to contest the upcoming Carib Beer Cup four-day tournament and KFC Cup one-day competition.

Julian Jack, the Windward Islands chairman of selectors, said he and captain Rawl Lewis recently met with the player who conveyed his decision to terminate his playing career.

"He told us that this is going to be his last season and he wants to go out on a high note," Jack revealed. "Maybe it is from a personal level or from a team perspective in helping the Windwards to do something special this year, but he said that 2007 would be it for him at the first-class level."

Murray, who made his debut for the Windwards senior team in 1988 against Barbados, played 147 first class matches and compiled 6,780 runs at an average of 30.96. He collected 335 catches and 35 stumpings. The pugnacious right-hander hit ten centuries, with a knock of 218 against Guyana in his native Grenada being his highest score. He scored 918 Test runs with one century while snaring 99 catches and three stumpings.

In ODIs, Murray finished with 678 runs and a strike rate of 73. He held 46 catches and effected seven stumpings.