Mayers on a mission

Kyle Mayers is keen on becoming a complete all-rounder following his maiden senior West Indies Twenty20 call-up for the Sandals Tour of New Zealand.

Mayers has been very good with the bat this year since his recovery from injury. He was among the leading batsmen for the 2020 Champions, Barbados Pride, in the four-day first-class tournament.

He also performed well as a reserve on the Test tour of England in July and then showed significant growth for the Barbados Tridents in the 2020 Caribbean Premier League Twenty20 tournament.

“It feels great to get my first West Indies call up. Obviously as a child growing up the dream was always to represent the West Indies and play international cricket. Now that I have an opportunity, I really feel grateful and thankful that the recent hard work I put in is now paying off,” Mayers told CWI Media.

“Being given the opportunity to play as a batsman was definitely one of the main reasons (for improvement in 2020). Also I put a lot of emphasis on my preparation, in previous years I was probably a little laid back in that area and took it lightly. I thought also believing in myself was crucial and being positive all the time. Try to put extra pressure on myself to do repeat performances in order to be more consistent.”

The 28-year-old bats left-handed and bowls a brisk right-arm medium-pace. He plays for Carlton Cricket in Barbados the home club of the great Desmond Haynes. Mayers started 2020 playing a key role with the bat as Barbados Pride dethroned Guyana Jaguars to win the West Indies championship. He then repeated that form with bat during the warm-up games during the England tour and finally during the CPL with Barbados Pride opening the bowling and batting in the top-order.

“Mayers’s performances have been very encouraging in 2020. With the bat the consistency has been there more so than what I recall when I saw him in CPL when I was coaching Amazon Warriors.

“As an all-rounder, his batting has been solid and if he can bowl more and be effective, it will make him more marketable as a player. He is definitely a player you tend to keep an eye on and look forward to seeing him progressing,” West Indies lead selector Roger Harper said.(CWI)