ANYONE who answers to the nickname of Flossie clearly isn’t a person to get too worked up about things.

The emotion that Davis Cup captain John Lloyd admitted to after being informed that Andy Murray had left the adolescent British team to face Argentina this week up the Rio de la Plata without a paddle was not anger, but philosophical disappointment.

Not even reports that Murray’s injured right knee stood up to a football kick-about at the Lawn Tennis Association’s (LTA) National Training Centre at the exact time his agent, Patricio Apey, phoned in his unavailability for Britain’s first World Group tie in five years elicited any anger.

Murray has yet to withdraw from a tournament in Marseilles that follows next weekend’s inevitable thrashing in Buenos Aires’s Estadio Parque Roca; that has been noted, but not criticised. The same applies to the fact that Chilean-born Apey agreed to be the team’s interpreter and courier in Argentina, then opted to stay in London. Even the normally loquacious LTA chief executive Roger Draper would not answer questions on Murray’s refusal to fly to Buenos Aires in the hope that he might be fit.

Murray will not be the only big name missing next weekend. The Swiss begin their attempt to recapture World Group status against Poland without Roger Federer; Rafael Nadal will not play for Spain in Peru.

“I’m afraid it’s the modern way,” said Lloyd, mindful that Argentina have won nine of their past 10 home ties 5-0. “Many of the top players are so consumed with their rankings and individual performance that playing in a team competition goes out of the window. Similarly, the public struggle to get a handle on how the Davis Cup works and when the two teams get to the final it is hardly construed as a big deal.”

At the Australian Open, Lloyd spoke to fellow captains Patrick McEnroe of the US and Sweden’s Mats Wilander about how the World Group competition should be held every two years in a two-week format in the autumn, with the defending champions acting as hosts and ranking points awarded. On Friday, Etienne de Villiers, the ATP’s executive chairman, said: “As part of our wide-reaching changes to the tour for 2009, we are looking to award ranking points for Davis Cup participation and expect a decision in the near future.”