Andre Russell happy to keep "promise" made to his mother

NEW DELHI: At 19, after he had completed high school, Andre Russell's mother wanted him to pursue higher studies but all that the West Indies all-rounder wanted to do was to play cricket."It was a tough call as we were poor and my mother thoughteducation would help me have a secured future. I just pleaded to my mom and toldher to give four years to try out my luck in big time cricket but she was readyto give me just two years," said an emotional Russell."Call itdestiny, at the end of two years, I wasn't able to make it to the Jamaican teamthat had Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels, Jermaine Lawson, Jerome Taylor. I told mymom that I was ready to quit and get back to studies. To my surprise, she toldme to continue for one more year and that changed things for me," the23-year-old Jamaican who has signed for Delhi Dardevils, today.Asluck would have it, he had led Jamaica to the one day title and got a contractto go and play league cricket in England."I was a local hero inWorcestershire league and my colleagues would always tell me that I would playfor West Indies. One day in England, I got a call from WICB's chairman ofselectors asking me whether I would be interested in joining the West Indies Asquad in England. I started doing push-ups in excitement at 3 in the morning,"he recollected the incident. I was 21 then and I had kept my mom'sword."A soft-spoken 23-year-old lad, Russell believes that patienceis the key to success at the highest level, be it breaking into DelhiDaredevils' playing XI or regularly playing Test cricket. He has had only oneTest appearance compared 21 ODIs and five T20 Internationals. "It'snot easy to bowl in Test matches. I found it very tough to bowl the third spellto guys like Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene in humid conditions inGalle. I need to play more first-class cricket for Jamaica. earlier, I had a bigoutswinger which I couldn't control but now I have better control on my swing,"Russell said."As far as Daredevils is concerned, there is so muchquality that it's hard to pick four players. But I am waiting to grab anyopportunity that comes my way. Whether batting in last three or four overs, orbowling at death, I am ready to give my hundred percent," Russellsaid.He believes that his IPL stint with the Daredevils will givehim a better opportunity to prepare for World T20 in Sri Lanka."Theconditions here are different from Australia and England. Here you can't bullyany batsman with pace but one has to be very consistent with areas where one isbowling. Here the pitches are a bit slow and deliveries tend to skid attimes."Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard have been smash hits for theirrespective franchises and Kevon Cooper hasn't been bad either. Russellattributes that different types of wickets that they get in the WestIndies."In West Indies, Port of Spain has track where the ballturns, Guyana is a wicket where the ball skids where as Kingston has fair carry.So we Caribbeans can read and adapt to conditions much better than the rest," heconcluded.