 Congratulations all around Darren Sami, the talismanic leader while leading this T20I team. Rothman forward the captain showed tremendous responsibility and maturity, he's there to the end. Questions for Josh Butler in England, Westernese, they win this one by four wickets. All right, we're starting up this Wednesday edition of the Sports Max zone with cricket. The Westernese carried over their great form from the ODI arena to the T20 format as they secured a four-week each win in the first of their five-matt series against England at the Kensington Oval in Barbados on Tuesday night. The windies who beat England 2-1 in the ODI series, which concluded on Saturday, successfully chased 172 after sending the visitors to bat first. Josh Butler's men started positively, scoring 77 without loss in the powerplay, led by Phil Saltz, who slashed 40 from 20 deliveries. However, they were pegged back and dismissed for 171 in 19.3 overs. For Andrew Russell, he claimed 3 for 19 and Alzari Joseph, 3 for 54. The men in Maroon then got several solid contributions in his air chase. J-Hope led with 36, Kyle Mayers got 35, Rovman Powell 31 nut out and play out the match Russell, 29 from Josh's 14 deliveries as the Caribbean side reached their target with 11 deliveries to spare. Here's Russell speaking on his first outing for the windies since November 2021. He also touched on his future with the team. I'm excited for this follow-up, I still have a lot to do the time, but here's a discussion with the coach. I told him that after work-up I would walk away from international cricket, but if they need me, I will promote the retirement, but that's the plan that I have. There are so many young talents here all around that are similar to myself. So sometimes you realize you're going into 36, just give the youngsters the opportunity and if West Indies still need me, I would be willing to put in the hard yards for them. Alright, West Indies all around there, Andrew Russell saying he has a lot in the tank team. He will consider retiring after the World Cup. However, if West Indies' duty needs him, he'll be coming back out of retirement to ensure that he's there to step up. He said he's been taking care of his body, he's been eating properly and for me he doesn't look his age at all. He has been doing really well, he looks fine, the numbers speak for themselves. So for me, good job, Andrew Russell. Yeah, well he unquestionably has been one of the most outstanding or most impactful players in T20 cricket and on the franchise global stage for the past decade. His issue is that he's constantly had a knee problem that creates problems for him generally in his career and especially in recent years he hasn't done much for the West Indies so that has been a concern with a lot of the fans but we know that Andrew Russell is a high impact player, we've seen him display that multiple times over different leagues all across the world and he seems up for this T20 World Cup coming up. He's 35 now, he'll be 36 when the World Cup T20 tournament is played next summer in the Caribbean and I think fans are hoping that the Andrew Russell that we know as an impact big hitter and as we saw last night as well also impact with the ball on occasions could turn up for the West Indies in June because if Andrew Russell is at his best at the World Cup for the West Indies it significantly improves the chances of the team. Yeah, I completely agree with you on that one Lance. Andrew Russell is a quality player and yes he's 35 years old but as he pointed out in that interview he still has so much to offer it's the same way I feel about a Darren Bravo in the 50 over format but we're not going to go back to that. Russell likely once he's able to keep up the level that he produced last night will go through to the World Cup and he's important to this West Indies T20 team in my opinion for several reasons. One his ability with the back, two his ability with the ball, three his ability in the field but four his leadership skills as well. You listened to him last night and pointing out that he picked up pretty early or thankfully for the West Indies early enough that pace on was being demolished consistently and so pace off was the way to go and from a position of seven to seven without loss after six overs when the West Indies ballers made the adjustment they were able to pull the Englishman back significantly to ball them out for 171 and that made a significant impact to how the game was played out and the West Indies were able to come away with the victory so it's great to see Andrew Russell back hopefully as you pointed out Lance he can stay healthy that the knee injury that has plagued so much of his career is a thing of the past and that over the next eight, nine, ten months he can really be a quality player a consistent performer for the West Indies in T20 internationals. Yeah and I have to agree about the leadership because the thing is players like Andrew Russell command a certain type of respect. They've played the game all over the world they've done really well all around the world so in a West Indies set up and I'll say it's a fairly young one with you know the introduction of different players they're still finding their footing and everything a player like Andrew Russell can only have a positive impact because he can speak to the players he could draw on the experiences he had internationally and for me that's always a plus and the thing is I've had the opportunity to interview him a couple of times in person and just his mannerism because he comes across as a really calm and cool person that can get the point across without you know creating any disarray well at least that's the view that I got when I spoke to him right so for me all of those qualities speak to an asset in any dressing room. Ricardo Dolan he spoke about a collective effort and I think as much as we want to celebrate Andrew Russell for what he has done you know rejoining this setup we really have to commend all of the players because for me impressive with the ball every one of them I looked at you know the match the amount of catches and that just shows how alert they all were on the field because one of the things we always discuss is miss feel and ball slipping through we didn't see that at all so the collective effort with the ball the collective effort on the field and then the batting everybody chipped in well once they got the opportunity so for me I am so satisfied even if it was a loss I'd still say complete performance. Yeah great great point there Amaraya because it is a fact that although Andrew Russell was the man of the match and the overall standard performer of the team the winners wouldn't have won if there weren't those other complimentary efforts from from the others who did so well I want to make two quick points on Andrew Russell before we leave that though the point he made about his commitment to playing West in this cricket is something that is lost on a lot of the fans and it's not the first time that I've heard Andrew Russell repeat his commitment and his his his joy in playing for the Western isn't wearing the maroon but because of a lot of things that have happened in the past the average fan doesn't feel that way they feel that when they are franchise opportunities for Andrew Russell he very easily chooses to take these opportunities over over West Indies duties but I I hear him say it constantly that he he loves playing for the West and as he wants to play for the West Indies I know that the injury has been an issue for a long time and while we speak consistently about the knee injury that he has had he's had a couple of serious hamstring injuries as well which sometimes is the result of being of overcompensating for knee trouble that you have because if he doesn't trust his knee his movement and how he runs and how he bowls will be reflective of the fact that he's thinking about making sure he doesn't hurt his knee and then that's where you get other injuries like muscle injuries and so on because I remember him having some pretty serious hamstring injuries as well so while we hope that his knee will remain steady his overall confidence in his full physical fitness from head to toe would be critical as well because you know as as the kind of because he's a power player that's one of the things with Andrea Russell he's a power player so physically he has to be in shape to deliver the quality performances that we know he had yeah and you know I'm gonna defend under Rossi here Lance because I think what has happened when you have as many injury issues as under Russell has had it plays on the psyche and here's the thing as well you have the T20 leagues this is where he's making a lot of his money if not most of his money so you have a player who is constantly trying to be healthy and so when West Indies bilateral series may come up as an individual you have to think is playing a bilateral series in my best interest at the moment you we've seen in the past where he's tried to go to the major tournaments and he's not been able to last the distance and that for me tells you that you are talking about a player who is committed you are talking about a player who wants to play for the West Indies but does his body always allow him to play and even when he does play does his body allow him to perform at the level that he wants to perform or at the level that we all know that he's capable of and so from that standpoint I will fully defend Andrea Russell and you understand very well because you've been juggling some injuries so Ricardo is speaking. I appreciate that. No but you're for real think about it if you had the opportunity Ricardo to play the big ones and make the big box versus playing the minor. It's a delicate balance to strike I also want to take up quickly Mariah's point about the complete performance from the West Indies team last night because I don't think that should be lost on us it was a brilliant all-round performance Shimmer and Hitmire was brilliant in the field with the catching took two catches Brandon King had a brilliant one as well as Zahra Joseph had a stunner down on the long-end boundary only a drop catch late on from Jason Holder was a down point in the fielding performance and then the overall batting performance from King to Kyle Mayer stole the number three Shea Hobb Nicholas Perran added his bit although he didn't go on. Robyn Powell the captain finishing brilliantly alongside Andrea Russell tough for Romaria Shepard getting out first ball but you'd expect a lot more from him and quickly answer Mariah I watched that match last night and I thought to myself West Indies is putting together a potential World Cup winning team here I am already convinced that the Caribbean side has a potential World Cup winning batting lineup if they can continue to perform in the field like they did last night and as the bowling hopefully continues to improve and because the World Cup will be in the Caribbean in conditions that these players will be very much accustomed to yeah I think for the first time heading into a major tournament things are looking up for Caribbean cricket and I am personally extremely optimistic about what this team can do and it doesn't matter what happens for the remainder of this series I will still believe that because I think the quality is there the players are there who can get the job done and the time is there to improve heading into that T20 World Cup right well we're gonna look forward to that second the T20 international tomorrow viewers and of course we'll analyze that when we get on set for the Sportsmax soon tomorrow on that note let's wrap up this segment take a break and come back with football to talk about