Jamaican all-rounder Andre Russell, currently playing for England’s Manchester Originals in the Hundred, was interviewed by former West Indies captain Darren Sammy on Sky Sports in the build-up to their match against Wales Fire on Tuesday night.
He said that his hope is to win another World Cup for West Indies. However, in the last few weeks, there was an exchange of controversial words about Russell including several senior players, and Dr. Desmond Hynes said about Russell,
“From what I have gathered, I think he is unavailable because he hasn’t made himself available,”
And head coach Phil Simmons said he can’t beg players to play for the team.
“It hurts. There’s no other way to put it. But what can you do? I don’t think that I should be begging people to play for their countries. I think if you want to represent West Indies, you will make yourself available.”
Russell, who has not represented West Indies in any match since the T20 World Cup held in November 2021, had responded to this.
“I know this was coming but am gonna stay quiet!!!” With four “angry” emojis thrown in.
However, he had insisted in this discussion with Darren Sammy that he still wanted to play for West Indies. Also, he said he would remain silent on past word exchanges. According to him,
“I’m going to be quiet,l. because at the end of the day, we had a discussion, and the discussion was very clear. So now, making me look bad, throwing me under the bus… I was expecting it. I’m going to stay quiet, Daren, to be honest.”
Asked by former West Indies captain Darren Sammy if he still wanted to play for West Indies, Russell replied that he really wanted to play for the Maroons.
“Of course, of course. The maroon is all over. Honestly, I have two franchise hundreds and I wish those hundreds were actually playing for West Indies. I don’t regret saying this just now. I really enjoyed playing for Jamaica Tallawahs but those two hundreds, it would be more special coming in international cricket.”
And,
“I always want to play and give back. But at the end of the day, if we are not agreeing on certain terms, you terms is my terms [sic], and they have to respect my terms as well. At the end of the day, it is what it is. We have families and we have to make sure that we give our best opportunity while we have one career.”
The Jamaican all-rounder has represented West Indies in 67 Twenty20 Internationals, scoring 741 runs and taking 39 wickets. Also, 34 Years old Russell said he wants to win another World Cup or two for West Indies.
“It’s not like I can start over again. I’m 34 and I want to win another World Cup – or two more – for West Indies because at the end of the day, I’m here now, and I’m just taking it day by day.”
The all-rounder will leave the Hundred to play for Trinbago Knight Riders next week. West Indies have faced several problems in creating a strong team for the T20 World Cup. Some of the players are out of the team due to injuries, some are out of the team due to personal reasons and some are out of the team due to not passing the fitness test.
However, Dr. Desmond Haynes said that talent is very important and a suitable team will be selected using all the matches until the World Cup and the last selection window is the CPL.
“If you’ve got a competition and somebody is playing well, I think his name should really come up for selection, so I think performance is very important to us. We did not say we have picked the World Cup team, so all the games leading up to the World Cup we must take them into consideration.”