Andy Murray will consider making himself unavailable for Davis Cup until Britain find some back-up players.

The reliance of the team on Murray has been emphasized by this year’s ties. When Murray did not play, Britain lost resoundingly 4-1 to the Ukraine despite being at home and fielding players with similar rankings to their opponents. At the weekend, Murray was the only player capable of winning a rubber and Britain lost 3-2 to Poland.

Now Britain are down in Euro-African Zone Two, Murray may well decide to focus solely on the major titles rather than expand vital energy keeping Britain afloat single-handedly. Many feel that it will be best if Murray does not play in next year’s ties to give lower ranked British players the experience of live rubbers against opponents of similar rankings who they would expect to beat in regular tournaments. Then once some back-up singles players capable of winning live rubbers in Davis Cup have been found and the team has a realistic chance of moving forward, Murray will return.

LTA chief executive Roger Draper made it clear today that he will understand if Murray chooses to do this. “What we want Andy doing is putting his focus on winning slams. That’s where his priorities should quite rightly lie. Of course we’d love him to play for his country but the reality is Andy is at a different level now and it may be a fantastic opportunity to start blooding some of these players.”

Speaking in the immediate aftermath of the defeat to Poland, Murray said “It’s not a huge amount of progress if I win my matches and then we come into this level again and go straight back down. We need to make sure the guys who come in are ready and experienced to deal with these sort of matches.”