Andre Russell's team not ruling out appeal to CAS

Jamaica and West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell has been slapped a one year ban for a whereabouts rule violation by the independent anti-doping disciplinary panel.

This comes 11 months after the two-time ICC T20 World Cup winner was revealed to have committed the anti-doping violation.

Hugh Faulkner who chaired the three member independent anti-doping disciplinary panel in delivering the verdict said: "Mr. Russell was found guilty of a doping violation" having missed three filing failures in 2015.

According to Faulkner, the all-rounder who was not provisionally suspended and helped the West Indies win a second World T20 World Cup in April in India over England,  is set to start his ban from "January 31, 2017" and it will end "January 30, 2018," 

The other members of the panel were physician Dr. Marjorie Vassell and former Jamaica cricketer Dixieth Palmer.

JADCO's attorney Lackston Robinson had argued that Russell was grossly negligent during the hearing, indicating that JADCO followed the rules in notifying Russell of the three filing failures and that the responsibility for the whereabouts information rested with the cricketer alone and not his agent.

Russell's attorney, Queen's Counsel Patrick Foster, had argued in six sittings of the hearing that JADCO did not follow the rules in a strict sense when notifying the cricketer of two filing failures between July 1 and September of 2015.

JADCO said Russell, a two time winner (2012 & 2016) of the ICC T20 World Cup, missed three filing failures within seven months on January 1, July 1 and July 25 of 2015.

Under the rules of the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA), athletes across all sporting disciplines must inform their local anti-doping agency, in this case JADCO, where they will be for at least one hour each day to facilitate drug tests. If an athlete misses three drug checks within a 12-month period, that counts as a positive test.

A visibly upset Russell, who appeared to be tearful at the announcement of the verdict at the Jamaica Conference Centre in Downtown Kingston, did not offer a comment.

However, his lead attorney Patrick Foster Q.C. while not satisfied the all-rounder did not beat the case, took comfort in that fact Russell avoided a maximum two-year ban.

"Relieved it's one year and not two years. But I genuinely thought given the circumstances and the evidence that was before the panel that he would have been exonerated," Foster told RJR Sports.

The attorney has not ruled out Russell lodging an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) within the allowable 21 day period of the anti-doping rules.

"Haven't made a decision like that as yet. We have considered it but we wouldn't really consider that seriously until we have had a chance to speak with the client and look at the (written) decision", Foster reasoned.

JADCO's attorney Lackston Robinson and the Executive Director of JADCO Carey Brown both declined to comment on the decision.