Lue refutes Smith in Russell’s case against JADCO
Bolt JADCO’S LAWYER Lackston Robinson spent the majority of yesterday’s cross-examination of West Indies all-rounder André Russell trying to prove that the 28-year-old was tardy in submitting whereabouts information to the national anti-doping body.
However, the cricketer said although he asked Judith Lue and then Wil Quinn to oversee his whereabout updates, he still tried to meet JADCO’s whereabout requirements, but communiqué from JADCO left him baffled and confused as he felt his whereabouts was being updated by a third party, as his very busy schedule and not knowing how to update information on JADCO’s ADAMAS website made it very difficult to make updates himself.
Russell also argued that JADCO never extended an invitation to him for any of their educational sessions, despite his many visits to the agency.
“Whether or not you had difficulty manoeuvring the ADAMAS system, did you go to JADCO to seek assistance to manoeuvre ADAMAS,” Robinson asked.
Russell replied: “I’ve been a professional cricketer for seven to eight years and I have been involved in the system for four to five years, and they have never mentioned about an educational session. I always try my best to reach out to JADCO, but there was no support,” he said.
“I’ve never tried to abandon the system, and that’s why I got my agent involved, but being all over playing cricket it is rough,” he stated.
Russell explained that he was extremely confused about the third filing failure, as Quinn was CampbellBrown overseeing the situation and his schedule was very hectic during that period.
“I thought we were getting somewhere with JADCO. But I was surprised when I was training at Sabina that I heard some females talking about my whereabouts not being updated. So I went there (JADCO) same time and got it updated, but in the evening when I reached home I got a filing failure package at my gate,” he explained.
SYSTEM UPDATES
Powell
He admitted seeing the notification to respond to JADCO’s letter and update whereabouts, however, he thought Quinn was dealing with the situation properly.
Meanwhile, Smith admitted assisting Lue with the ADAMAS system updates for Russell, but stated that he never knew she was updating at the time.
Lue, however, insisted that he (Smith) knew she was updating and assisted her step by step all the way.
“I knew nothing of the system, so I called and spoke with Smith and he told me I needed a password and user name. I contacted Andre, who gave me the user name and password, and I called back Tajae, who told me where to go and walked me through the process,” she said.
“I said I was putting in the info, when I put in the info the page would change colour, so he would say do this ... and he said all was fine after we ended,” she stated.
The next hearing is scheduled for Thursday, November 17. The files and exchange of written submissions will be due on November 7 at 4 p.m., while the transcript from the typist is due on October 24.