One of the best all-rounders, West Indian Andre Russell is now banned from all forms of Cricket for a year. The ruling comes after a doping code violation, his Australian T20 club said on Tuesday.
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The 28-year-old athlete missed his appointment on 3 occasions in 2015 and did not file his whereabouts as required. This constitutes a failed drugs test under WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) guidelines. The punishment was handed down by the Jamaican Anti-Doping Commission.
Confirming the outcome, the Sydney Thunder GM Nick Cummins said, “We are devastated for Andre”.
“We haven’t seen the written judgement. But given the circumstances surrounding the filing failures we thought he had a good chance of being exonerated.
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“We will closely monitor the appeals process and assess our options.”
Under the WADA’s rules, elite athletes must give details of where they will be for 1 hour every day to facilitate in drug tests.
This year, Russell played 5 games in the Big Bash league for the Sydney Thunders. He was out injured after that. Another West Indian all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite replaced him.
Sydney Thunder director of cricket, Mike Hussey said he too felt for Russell.
“I feel for him. He has been going through a really tough time of late with all this ‘whereabouts’ thing going on and he’s been waiting to hear the finding of that hearing,” Hussey told the CA website.
“I want him to go away and get better physically but also mentally.”
