Andre Russell loss provides perfect image of West Indies' unraveling World Cup

He hobbled in to bowl; he dragged himself between the wickets; he shuffled and limped around the field with all the conviction of a car on its very last droplets of fuel

The last time Jason Holder’s West Indies team won a game of cricket, Liverpool were still 24 hours away from a sixth Champions League title.

All was rosy in the garden of Eoin Morgan’s England side; Jason Roy, Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Morgan himself had all struck half-centuries in an opening-day win. The only real question was of whether a total against South Africa of 311 for eight comprised sufficient jitters for real concern.

Much can change in a month. And the last four weeks may constitute as wholesome an endorsement as any of such a statement. Liverpool, of course, were crowned European champions for the first time since 2005; England have since lost as many games as they have won.

Meanwhile, the unstoppable optimism that arrived with a West Indian side full of excitement has burst emphatically; what was a star-studded outfit of Indian Premier League stars and big-hitting diamonds has been ravaged by fitness issues and poor form.

Evin Lewis – a possible breakout star before the tournament began – was the latest to suffer, leaving the field early in Saturday’s agonising defeat at the hands of New Zealand, before returning to register a duck in a chase that promised so much.

Andre Russell, of course, has been the most high-profile of the Caribbean outfit’s wounded soldiers. He underwent knee surgery today after leaving the competition on Monday – a sad end for a phenomenal but broken talent. He was wholehearted in all that he attempted; all the cricketing universe knew of the knee problem that would ultimately curtail him.

He hobbled in to bowl; he dragged himself between the wickets; he shuffled and limped around the field with all the conviction of a car on its very last droplets of fuel. Quite frankly, if Russell had been a racehorse, such an episode would never have been allowed to continue for as long as it did.

^{The injury troubled Russell throughout the tournament}

And as he waved the World Cup stage a final adieu, one could not help but be pleased – not for the competition, of course. For, this dragged out version of the sport’s showpiece event needs the world’s greatest entertainers. A World Cup without Dre Russ is a World Cup shorn of one of the sport’s star turns.

Yet, at the same time, on a humane level, it was almost a relief to hear that he – and his willpower – had admitted torturous defeat at the end of a grisly battle with his own patella. Beyond the politics of West Indian cricket and the challenges that come with making a united front of a plethora of individual islands and cricketing communities, the challenge of looking after Russell – a flawed superstar – was always likely to be among Holder’s greatest tests.

For all that Russell brings – the enormous hitting, the fiery bouncers, the lightning athleticism in the field, he also carries a chronic knee problem. It is an injury he has treated with spite, going above and beyond to draw the maximum from himself even when sharp agony told him otherwise. After withdrawing from the squad on Monday, he admitted that the problem is not new, and that it first resurfaced in that first game back in May, when a sanguine buoyancy was the order of the day.

If nothing else, his own performance on that day may well have ended his hopes of seeing through this competition. In the space of three overs of fearsome brutality, Russell went from a gamble to a certainty, from a left-field selection to the centrepiece of all that this West Indian side could achieve.

His selection was doubtless inspired by an IPL season of severe hitting, while his bowling was used sparingly during his stint with Kolkata Knight Riders.

But in that spell at a Pakistani batting line-up that, quite simply, wanted little to do with Russell’s rockets, he pencilled himself in for more than Holder had initially bargained for and that his knee could dare cope with.

He bowled Fakhar Zaman via the grill of his helmet, while his working over of Haris Sohail was ferocious enough that the elegant left-hander only returned to the Pakistani fold in Sunday’s win against South Africa. Russell had spooked Pakistan just as it was hoped he might spook them all.

Sadly, however, as opposition sides became wise to the banquet of bouncers being served up by an increasingly faulty West Indian machine, Russell’s body also caught up with him.

That he should, therefore, miss a battle with India, where so many generational superstars are due to meet, is a crying shame.

The idea of Russell, Chris Gayle – now extending his international swansong to potentially include a first Test appearance in five years, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni and more sharing the Old Trafford arena was a mouth-watering prospect.

Russell, however, much like that May optimism, is gone.

ur coverage of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 is brought to you in association with Cricket 19, the official video game of the Ashes. Order your copy now at Amazon.co.uk

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