It takes considerable courage to risk being seen as biting the hand that feeds you but that is what Dave Murdoch, the three time Olympian who won a silver medal at Sochi two years ago, has done in calling upon Scotland’s politicians to follow through on promises made in the wake of that success.

He also runs the risk of being seen as having a simplistic view of the world, given that there are agencies through which funding is directed rather than those at Holyrood being direct involved.

However the reception on the curlers’ return, with all three teams at the Winter Olympics and Paralympics having won medals, is recent enough for Murdoch to remember the way politicians wanted to have their pictures taken with them and made what appeared to be funding commitments in seeking to be seen as playing their parts in sustaining that success.

Nor is he alone in expressing such frustration.

The Herald:

Before departing the British Curling programme last year Soren Gran, coach to Team Murdoch when they won their silver medal, drew comparison with the way facilities in Scotland are reducing as compared with his native Sweden which is investing heavily in them.

In similar vein, shortly before leaving his job with Active Stirling who were tasked with driving the National Performance Centre along with sportscotland, Logan Gray, formerly a player on the programme who has been developing a career as a commentator on the sport, expressed his bewilderment at the lack of progress, not least because no attempt had been made to utilise his knowledge of the sport.

Indeed the very first interview I conducted with anyone in curling, ahead of the success in Sochi, was with Bruce Crawford, chief executive of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club, who made it clear even then that discussion about the creation of a National Performance Centre had been on-going for a great deal of time.

In keeping with his position Crawford’s approach was clearly ‘softly, softly,’ but since it seemed that all systems were ‘go’ in 2014 it is understandable that participants are becoming impatient.

Even so what made it a brave decision for Murdoch to speak out as he did – and he required no prompting in choosing to bring it up in response to a broad question about what is required to help get Scottish curling up to the standards of the world-leading Canadians – is that his is a sport in which even the very best in Britain require government funding to be full-time players.

Imaginary or not there is generally a real fear among those sportspeople who are dependent on central funding about speaking out in unauthorised fashion because they fear vindictive reprisals aimed at themselves or those around them from the powers-that-be in some form or another.

In this case the most obvious way that could manifest itself would be for the National Performance Centre project to be killed off, but that would represent a significant U-turn in terms of the statements made by, in particular, Shona Robison, the sports minister, when it was announced in 2014 that it was to be built.

In any case, surely those involved in the relevant sector are entitled to seek to hold politicians to such commitments and as the most senior figure in the British programme the former world champion is the right man to do it.

On the one hand, as he bids to go to a fourth Winter Olympics, the prospects of which have improved hugely in recent weeks with his rink’s return to form, he urgently needs the best possible practise facilities if he is to be properly competitive in pursuit of going one better than in Sochi.

On the other there is a selfless element to this as he speaks up on behalf of his sport since, in reality, it is unlikely that any facility will now be in place ahead of the 2018 Winter Olympics which may represent his last realistic chance.

The real beneficiaries would be Team Muirhead, led by Eve Muirhead, who is probably Scotland’s leading sportswoman right now and up and coming men’s rinks like Team Smith, who beat Murdoch’s men to the right to go to the recent European Championships.

The reason HeraldSport decided to devote a bit more attention to curling a couple of years ago is that as well as Scotland being the home of the sport, it was the one team sport at which we could genuinely claim to be among the global leaders.

Clearly the concern registered by Murdoch and other players as they look at what is happening elsewhere, is that they are going to be left behind by rivals who have superior facilities in which to train.

It is right, then, that he has said what he has and the right response from those whose efforts he is commenting upon, would be to understand respectfully why this leading sportsman has felt the need to do so rather than question his motives or methods.

This actually represents an opportunity for officialdom at Holyrood and its agencies to demonstrate that in seeking to make things better for their sport, those who have the courage to speak up have nothing to fear and the official response yesterday struck the right tone but, as ever, actions will speak louder than words.