Lloyd intends to ring Murray as soon as he learns Britain's opponents in the Europe/Africa zone to which they were relegated after the dismal defeat against Austria at Wimbledon at the weekend.

The question will be simple. Do you fancy a trip to such as Macedonia or Ukraine or South Africa to flog your guts out with practically no support from the rest of the team?

The chances are that Lloyd will receive a positive reply from Murray, even to that unappealing prospect, but with the proviso: "I can't keep doing it all on my own."

If, however, Murray decides that playing Davis Cup for a country of perennial underachievement would harm his attempt to become the number one singles player on the planet then Lloyd is prepared to throw in the juniors to nurture a new generation of talent.

Murray's analysis of Britain's problems following the defeat by Austria, in which he won both his singles but saw Alex Bogdanovic lose both his matches and brother Jamie and Ross Hutchins outclassed in the doubles, was searingly honest.

Murray said: "I do have to win both my matches. I felt I dealt with the pressure well but we need to find other ways of winning points and it shouldn't just be my fault all the time if we win or lose ties, because this is supposed to be a team event.

"If we want to be in the world group you have to have a very good doubles team.

"Me and Jamie have hardly played. We are good, but not very good at the highest level, so we need to find ways of winning other points rather than just my two singles.

"Everybody was saying when Greg (Rusedski) and Tim (Henman) were around that we needed a doubles specialist, the problem is we need a second singles player as well."

That clearly is not world number 164 Bogdanovic, whose mental fragility looks irreparable. The stark fact is that there are scarce resources to select from.

Which is why Lloyd is prepared to turn to the kids if his phone call with Murray does not go to plan after the draw, for which Great Britain are seeded along with the Slovak Republic, Belgium and Belarus, takes place in Madrid.

Lloyd said: "I'm hoping it will be a home draw or somewhere exotic so we can ask him (Murray) for a week's holiday before.

"But if it doesn't happen then it's a different kind of focus on the team. Would that be a time to bring in some youngsters and blood them? Then we have a rebuilding thing going on."

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