Andre Russell is a clean athlete
Andre Russell has been banned for one year for a doping whereabouts violation, but his lawyer insists he is “a clean athlete”.
The lawyer of Andre Russell has said he disagrees with an independent anti-doping panel’s decision to ban the West Indies all-rounder for 12 months for a whereabouts clause violation.
Russell was suspended for a year on Tuesday, effective from January 31, after an independent tribunal found him guilty of negligence in failing to file his whereabouts to anti-doping testers on three separate occasions.
Insisting his client was ” a clean athlete”, Russell’s lawyer, Patrick Foster, suggested an appeal was a possibility.
In a media release quoted by ESPNCricinfo, Foster said: “Mr Russell and his legal team are carefully reading and reviewing the ruling as regards the next steps and the possibility of an early appeal of the decision of the panel’s ruling. While we respect the ruling, we respectfully disagree with it and are very disappointed that the panel saw it fit to impose a one-year ineligibility period.
“Throughout his career as an international and domestic T20 cricketer, Mr Russell has been tested on many occasions by various anti-doping agencies/bodies in several countries pursuant to WADA [World Anti-Doping Agency] guidelines and he has never registered an adverse analytical finding.
“Mr Russell is a clean athlete who seeks to uphold the integrity of cricket. He respects and makes every effort to be compliant with the rules of sport generally, cricket and to comply with anti-doping rules and procedures. Our client will continue to cooperate fully with JADCO [the Jamaican Anti-Doping Commission] and WADA.”
Having been charged by JADCO last March, Russell told the independent panel in a hearing that he had authorised his agent to update his whereabouts.
A limited-overs specialist, Russell has represented his country on 43 occasions in the shortest format and is a two-time World Twenty20 champion.
He has also enjoyed considerable success in domestic Twenty20 tournaments around the world and holds 43 one-day international caps for the West Indies, while his sole Test outing came against Sri Lanka in 2010.
