'I hit ball 100 meters, bowled 140 plus, people questioned if I was using drugs' - Andre Russell recalls the darkest phase of career

Relooking at the worst phase of his cricketing career, Kolkata Knight Riders all-rounder Andre Russell revealed his ordeals when he was slapped a 12-month ban by an anti-doping panel in Kingston. Russell’s plea to the tribunal that he was cautious went in vain and he was penalized after being adjudged guilty in January 2017.

In a video uploaded by the KKR franchise on its official YouTube channel, Andre Russell recalled what he went through after he received such a massive blow when he was peaking in his career. He went onto reveal people’s skeptical behavior towards him due to his athletic and sturdy physique.

Back in the day, Russell was searching for a spot in the KKR team. IPL’s 2016 edition fetched him 188 runs at a whopping strike rate of 164.91 from eight games, while with the ball he claimed 15 wickets at 19.40.

2017 was one of the worst years of my career: Andre Russell

“2017 was one of the worst years of my career. You know, getting banned [while] being on the top of my game, hitting the ball cleaner than ever. People [were] trying to prove a point because I wasn’t hiding from anyone. I was doing a test everywhere I played. Because with me hitting the ball over 100 meters, bowling 140 plus from a short run, people start to question if I am using drugs or whatever. And I used to know everything to do in terms of a drug test. I knew how to release and move the label, no one had to show me anything. It was like putting on a shoe,” said Andre Russell.

Russell went onto share his experiences from the trial and court proceedings. “And they hit me, hit me hard. It was crazy. They went again and they appealed the case for two years and that’s when the government and other people got involved. People said they have met me and spoke to me when that was the first time I was seeing those people. And it’s such a wicked world we live in. Because when someone takes the Bible and say “I swear….”, I say ok, there’s no way this woman or man will lie because I respect the Bible,” said Andre Russell.”

[She] looked dead in my eye and said that she sat down with me and discussed the rules and regulations about JADCO (Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission). And I gave an outburst in court. I said, ‘Me? I have never seen you in my life’. And I wasn’t lying. I had never seen that woman,” he added.

After the ban, Russell slumped to an all-time low in life and he admitted how he was unable to even watch cricket anymore. [I wanted to] just to get away from my city… because when I drove through, people looked at me like ‘Oh he’s taking drugs’. Because a lot of people don’t get things. I wasn’t feeling pain anywhere but I couldn’t play the game… like every time it kicked in… I wasn’t even watching cricket. I would just ask the score. I tried to watch a few KKR games and it was just so hard,” he said.

But he got back onto his feet again, smacking 316 at a strike rate of 184.80 in IPL 2018 before he set alight the tournament in 2019, scoring 510 at a staggering average and strike rate of 56.67 and 204.82 respectively to include his names in the list of world’s finest all-rounders.