West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell is not pleased with critics who have labelled him a Twenty20 gun for hire.According to Russell, he has every right to earn from the game he plays as a professional.
“You can’t go into a supermarket and say … I used to play for West Indies, I had 10 half-centuries, 15 hundreds, you can’t get groceries like that – you have to live. You can’t be begging on the road, you can’t live off your stats,” said Russell.
Russell believes being paid to play for cricket is just as much about what happens after you stop playing as anything else.
“As a professional, you have to think about living after cricket,” said Russell.
The all-rounder was also vocal about the hurt he felt after watching the beating meted out on the West Indies in Hobart last week, but said he hopes the team can rebound.
“Even if we go down the next game, we’ll go down fighting,” Russell said, pointing to a love for West Indies cricket, his label suggests is not there.
Russell is one of the more active players on the Twenty20 circuit. He has played in India, Bangladesh and the Caribbean already this year. On Thursday, Russell will turn out for the Sydney Thunder in the Australian Big Bash.