MILLIONS of people around the world will be tuning into today’s (Sunday’s) World T20 Cup final – a match which involves a mega star who once wore the whites of Barnards Green Cricket Club.
West Indies star Andre Russell is currently one of the most talked about stars in world cricket after he dramatically smashed the winning runs to take his team to the final on Thursday to set up an exciting showdown with England.
In recent times Russell has made very big earnings in the game with a reputation of hitting huge sixes with the bat in cricket’s shortest format.
But things were very different for Russell six years ago when he signed as the Malvern’s club overseas player of the year, with the aim of getting valuable experience on his cricketing CV.
It was to be Russell’s first ever experience of English cricket.
Barnards Green were thrilled with the signing and labelled it a ‘major coup’ for the club who at the time were hoping to win promotion to the Birmingham and District Cricket League.
Here’s how the club announced the signing in their Spring Newsletter of 2010.
“BGCC have pulled off a major coup by securing the signing of up and coming Jamaican all rounder Andre Russell.
“21 year old Russell is a fast bowler and middle order batsman with 7 1st class matches behind him already. This included a match for a Jamaica XI vs. the touring Australians in 2008 when he took the wickets of Andrew Symonds, Brett Lee and Phil Jacques and also scored 25 in the second innings.
“Described by former West Indian Test Match captain Jimmy Adams as genuinely quick and an extremely hard worker Russell will be experiencing his first summer in the UK and was very pleased to take up the opportunity offered to him by BGCC.
“The signing puts to an end a frustrating 3 month search for the overseas player for 1st XI captain Tim Williams. He said ‘I am very excited to be able to welcome Andre to the club and the signing signals a clear intent from the club that we wish to go one better this year. We have had a long search and looked at many different players but I was determined to find a player of suitable quality for the 2010 season. Steven Hirst at cricx.com has been a huge help in securing this very exciting signing and we’d like to thank him for his efforts.’
“Russell will arrive in Malvern in mid April in time for the start of the season.”
The then promising talent honed his skills helping the club to win the Worcestershire Premier Division.
Russell starred with both bat and ball as the club achieved their target of becoming champions.
According to his Wikipedia page, the now 27-year-old took 39 wickets at an impressive average of just 10.15 for Barnards Green and with the bat scored a huge 799 runs in just eleven innings – finishing with an outstanding average of 99.88 (including three not outs).
One of his best displays in a Barnards Green shirt came against their local rivals Malvern when the Jamaican scored 98 and took 4-44 in a 122-run victory. He also blitzed 161 off 103 balls hitting 18 fours and seven sixes in another big win against Colwall.
His successful spell at Barnards Green and impressive displays for the West Indies A team prompted bigger things to come for Andre as he made his Test debut for the West Indies and in 2011 made his ODI debut in the World Cup held in India.
He has also been highly involved in the T20 circuit playing regularly in the Indian premier League and returned to Worcestershire in 2013 to join the Worcestershire Rapids as a replacement signing for the then New Zealand star Jacob Oram.
More recently he helped Islamabad United win the Pakistan Super League and was named man of the tournament.
Ahead of Sunday’s final, Barnards Green Cricket Club congratulated Russell after he smashed a huge six to clinch West Indies place in the final.
The club tweeted:
BGCC legend Andre Russell whacks the West Indies into the WT20 final! Still think the six down Orford Way was bigger! Legend @Russell12A #WI
— Barnards Green Cricket Club (@BGCC_Official) March 31, 2016
In addition, the club have also tweeted a joke public vote asking users to choose which of his sixes was bigger – the one on Thursday against India or the one he hit against Malvern down Orford Way.