HEADLINE: Andre Russell hits back over Kohli’s Test comments: ‘It’s different being from West Indies’

Andre Russell has a favourite six. One that he thinks of when his head hits the pillow at night. Out of all the cloud-busting strikes that have flown from his blade in the last 15 years, all the boundary-clearing smites across the globe, delivered with dead-eyed assassin temperament under his trademark bleached mohawk. One shot stands out. One six to rule them all.

“The one off Hardik Pandya at the Wankhede in the 2016 World Cup,” he says. “That one was just massive. Perfect swing. Right out of the middle.” There’s a moment of silence before Russell blows out his cheeks at the memory. “That one was crazy.” You can look it up and decide for yourself, watch the umpire Richard Kettleborough’s chuckle of astonishment as the ball soars into the top tier of Mumbai’s famous stadium and he signals the obvious. Yeah, that’s a six all right.

Russell has just arrived in a “chilly” Durham before West Indies’ T20I series opener against England. The 37-year-old all-rounder is “feeling strong, feeling good” and is acclimatising to the north-east from the heat of the IPL, where he recently completed his 13th tournament and 11th stint with Kolkata Knight Riders.

For more than a decade “Dre Russ” has been traversing the planet as one of world cricket’s most in-demand T20 franchise players. From Kolkata to LA, London to Lahore, Montreal to Sydney, for Tigers and Leopards, Warriors and Gladiators, Sultans, Royals, Kings, Tallawahs, Daredevils, Renegades and Rapids. To reel off all the teams Russell has represented is to sound like Billy Joel doing We Didn’t Start the Fire.

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Say a prayer for men like Blackwood, Brathwaite, et al. They're victims of the system if I am correctly interpreting Russell.

In reply to XDFIX


Blackwood is a victim of the system

Kraigg Brathwaite is a beneficiary of the same system

In reply to imusic


exactly. kohli's comments are really blind though. 11 men can play for a test team.....there are thousands of indian IPL and domestic players, and the vast majority of them are from desperately poor backgrounds. If you guys get a chance, you should read up on rohit sharma and Ravindra Jadeja's life story. They were good enough to make the test team. there ae thousands who cannot, for one reason or the other. The ipl is a god send for many, many people

Nasser Hosein just said is different for WI players...he is speaking just before the start of the t 20 match against England

Kohli is right regarding it is 5 levels below test cricket

In reply to CaribbeanCricket.com

West Indies cricket has a long history of acrimony between hierarchy and players.

In reply to Fivestar

the said article said the west indies selection process is parochial.....and it is so by design. it benefits the players from "friendly" boards who at the same time are immodest in accepting the glaring limitations. Barbados and the Windward Islands are front runners in this immodesty. in the past 15 years, we have seen many players from those two territories play for the WI and fail miserably. they are continually picked and they are not honest enough to accept that they are not up to the required standard for the international game

Russell is being disengenous about why ne never played test cricket .

Looks like Dre Russ has just joined the group of talking-heads.

No wonder his first over went for 22 runs.

Mercenary

Conveniently makes himself available whenever he wants

In reply to brians_da_best

This is what I think. West Indies players want to make good money but they can't make it playing solely for West Indies. So they venture off into the various franchise leagues in search of good money.

However, they want to play in high profile ICC tournaments. But, they can only do so by playing for West Indies.

It's time CWI propose a compromise. A player can join the franchise circuit but must play a certain number of games for West Indies to be eligible for ICC tournaments.

If a player agrees you shake his hand and if he says no you move on.

In reply to Fivestar

All of us need to get this through our heads.

CWI or whatever initials they choose to use HAVE ZERO LEVERAGE WITH THE BEST CRICKETERS FROM THE REGION.

NONE!

They either do their best and work with them, or they do as you suggest and ignore them for selection.

Then we all will have to resign ourselves and ACCEPT the endless likes of “loyal, best of the rest” cricketers, most of whom are not international standard.

Not their fault. They will gleefully accept the fans and board’s appreciation and convince themselves they do belong……until they get on the pitch….and we’re all uncomfortably reminded of reality. And those of them that manage to stand out may get offers and those that were once loyal are branded traitors by fans and board alike.

Then we’ll comfort ourselves with the mindset that we lost with the “mercenaries and prima donnas” anyway so we might as well lose with those who are loyal.

Conveniently ignoring that the vast majority of them are only loyal because they have no other options.

But we’ll continue the charade anyway.

In reply to CaribbeanCricket.com



Assuming the quote is accurate, this is where I get a sad feeling. WI will never be able to "look after their Test players" or T20 players like an IPL team or like AUS or England, for the obvious reason that the exist in bigger and better economies. When DreRuss says it the way he said it, he is simply sheeting all over where he came from. It's the same shitehole that created the environment for him to develop his talent so he may parade it around the world and earn a good living. How about you simply say, look like anyone else, I am maximizing my earnings potential. Or I am doing the best to set up myself for the future to take care of myself and my family. Be thankful that poor JA made a way for you.

Open yuh yeye, think a bit man. Same kind of ungratefulness Asafa Powell recently uttered.

BTW, my opinion, T20 is definitely below Test by multiple levels in terms of skill required but in terms of entertainment and earnings potential Test is many levels BELOW T20.

Russell's comments in 2024.

In reply to HumbleCalf


that is true. the problem was in the early days of t20 cricket., the WICB was living as usual in the stone age. Sri Lanka Cricket, the bard governing cricket in Sri Lanka, told the ECB that they would not be able to tour England in 2009 because their best players would be involved in the IPL(mahela, dilshan, murali, sangakara, nuwan kulasakera)....that's six of the starting XI.

The west indies cricket board in their foolhardiness expressed interest in touring england in place of the sri lankans., this decision was made in 2008, and the wicb did not seem to have the foresight(do they ever) that some of their players would be selected for the same said tournament. It turned out that members of the test squad that had just beaten England in the Caribbean all would have ipl contracts: gayle, chanderpaul, dwayne bravo, jerome taylor and fidel edwards. Now this tour was NOT on the FTP. The wicb offered to replace sri lanka as tourists and essentially warmups for the 2009 ashes. Now if that does not exemplify stupidity, i don't know what does.

The CWI cannot take care of the test squad the way the big three does. But the wicb is the only board that went into a protracted civil war with its players. It failed to acknowledge that the table was not theirs anymore

Dre Russ is simply disrespecting the region. The contracts that WICB offer their players should be compared to the average salaries for the region. These contracts are many times the value of what the average man earns. So it is not that we are not looking after the test players, they are simply not earning as much as those from other countries. This is very much a worldwide norm that there are salary discrepancies among various countries. I for one have no problem with the Dre Russes of this world saying that they want their bling and so would prefer not to play for the region. But what I cannot take is them coming up with these soundbites to justify their own choices and make others look bad. What Dre Russ should also consider is that if he were a player from India, England etc, would he even be offered a central contract? Probably not based on his international output.

In reply to PalsofMine


Professional sportsmen are not average professionals. take the roughly 6 million Caribbean people who speak English and the 20 or so west indian players who are around the set up and that is 0.0003% of the population.

In reply to HumbleCalf


that bangladesh visit was pushed down until july-august. I was in Washington that year on vacation and was following the scores online. An Australian who was in the same group asked me what was really going with the West Indies and if they're any sane people managing the cricket. WICB mangled the entire season which had started off with enormous promise with our first series win over England in 11 years, a continuation of the excellent run of captaincy Chris Gayle was enjoying. I told you all a long time ago, the west indies ills are self inflicted.

In reply to PalsofMine

ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!

these guys are professional cricketers in worldwide demand.

Their peer group is not ‘average salary earners in the Caribbean’!