Desert Vipers’ Caribbean core a ‘huge asset’ for GSL, says Mayers

DUBAI, UAE – The Desert Vipers’ quar­tet of West In­di­an tal­ent could prove to be the fran­chise’s se­cret weapon in next month’s Exxon­Mo­bil Guyana Glob­al Su­per League (GSL), ac­cord­ing to Bar­ba­di­an all-rounder Kyle May­ers.

Speak­ing on the Vipers Voic­es pod­cast, May­ers, who will be joined by fel­low Caribbean play­ers Khary Pierre, Ra­mon Sim­monds, and 19-year-old bat­ting prodi­gy Zachary Carter, said lo­cal knowl­edge of Guyana’s tricky con­di­tions would be in­valu­able in the short, un­for­giv­ing tour­na­ment.

“Play­ing crick­et in Guyana could be very tricky. It was tough for some of the for­eign play­ers,” said May­ers, who gained ex­pe­ri­ence in the 2025 GSL with Bangladesh’s Rang­pur Rid­ers. “There’s not much time to get ac­quaint­ed. It’s about hit­ting the ground run­ning.”

May­ers, a vet­er­an of 18 Tests, 28 ODIs, and 41 T20Is for the West In­dies, re­mains in the T20I mix de­spite not play­ing Tests or ODIs since 2023.

His fran­chise CV spans the IPL, PSL, BPL, SA20, Eng­land’s T20 Blast, and the CPL, a wealth he’s ea­ger to share.

“I’m al­ways hap­py to share in­for­ma­tion. Trav­el­ling and play­ing in dif­fer­ent con­di­tions against so many play­ers is a great thing,” he said. “I’m look­ing for­ward to do­ing that.”

On the pitch, May­ers sees him­self as the ul­ti­mate pow­er­play weapon. “Pow­er­play with both bat and ball. I like to take on the game from the start. Bat­ting in the top three, bowl­ing with the new ball, that’s where I’m at my best. You can call me the pow­er­play man.”

May­ers al­so broke down the strengths of his Caribbean team­mates. “Khary Pierre, he’s very un­der­rat­ed. Ef­fi­cient, gets the job done, a good field­er. Spin­ners al­ways do well in Guyana. He’s not typ­i­cal, he bowls wick­et-to-wick­et, con­trols the pow­er­play, and is harm­ful at any stage.”

“Ra­mon Sim­monds is a bright spark in West In­dies crick­et. A class bowler. Three years ago, I cap­tained the Bar­ba­dos CPL side, and he was my go-to—the youngest on the team. He’s a wick­et-tak­er with a gold­en arm.”

“Zachary Carter, he’s my club­mate at Carl­ton Club. Big lad, I thought he was 25, but he was 18. He packs a punch. He scored 80 off 30 balls in a 50-over game, then beat us to a pulp with 80 not out off 40. He’s con­fi­dent, doesn’t keep qui­et about it, and can’t wait to get to Guyana.”

With all four Caribbean play­ers bring­ing in­ti­mate knowl­edge of Guyanese con­di­tions, the Vipers are bank­ing on a fast start when the GSL be­gins in Ju­ly.

CMC