Vipers Voices

Brian Murgatroyd

This is the home of The Desert Vipers, the Twenty20 franchise side competing in the ILT20, the shortform tournament in the United Arab Emirates with its fourth edition in December 2025 and January 2026. For exclusive interviews and insight from the Desert Vipers camp, this is the place to be. This is Vipers Voices...

  1. Bevon Jacobs on what it takes to be a T20 finisher and lots more!

    3 days ago

    Bevon Jacobs on what it takes to be a T20 finisher and lots more!

    Send us Fan Mail This time we catch up with an up-and-coming star who’s linking up with the Vipers for the first time – New Zealand middle-order batter Bevon Jacobs.   Bevon has enjoyed a breakthrough past 12 months, making his international debut for New Zealand in the Twenty20 International format, and now he’s all set to take his bow for the Vipers in the upcoming ExxonMobil Guyana Global Super League that’s due to take place in late July and early August. Observant Vipers fans will remember he played for MI Emirates in the third season of the DP World ILT20 and, off the back of that, he got to spend a season with Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League. Coming up Bevon talks us through those experiences.   He made his international debut in Zimbabwe against the country of his birth, South Africa, in the middle of last year and made an immediate impact, with an unbeaten 44 from 30 balls, as he helped rescue the Black Caps and put them on the road to victory, and he has gone from strength to strength after that impressive start.   Bevon played in the Caribbean Premier League for the Antigua and Barbuda franchise and was then the breakout star of the New Zealand Super Smash which helped earn him a spot in this year’s Pakistan Super League.   On top of that, after the PSL, Bevon made his maiden international fifty, against Bangladesh in Mirpur, and now’s he’s all set for the Global Super League – a year after he looked set to play in the tournament for the Dubai Capitals, only for other commitments to prevent that from happening.   Within our chat, Bevon talks of the role of the finisher in the T20 format – the mindset required and also the type of practice that a player such as him has to do to ensure he is best prepared for what’s required. He also speaks with us about his background, as well as his aspirations for the future. All in all, it’s a terrific conversation.  https://www.thedesertvipers.com https://twitter.com/TheDesertVipers https://www.instagram.com/thedesertvipers/ https://balqiscapital.com

    32 min
  2. New recruit Rilee Rossouw on how a squad can gel quickly - & cricket in Belgium!

    19 Jun

    New recruit Rilee Rossouw on how a squad can gel quickly - & cricket in Belgium!

    Send us Fan Mail This time we catch up with a new recruit for the Vipers, South Africa top-order batter Rilee Rossouw.   Rilee is linking up with the Vipers for the upcoming ExxonMobil Guyana Global Super League that is set to take place in late July and early August, replacing off-spinning all-rounder Chris Green in the squad after Chris was ruled out through injury. There are few players currently playing who can boast the range of experience that Rilee possesses.   He’s played for at least 20 teams and franchises on the Twenty20 circuit, plus the Oval Invincibles in the men’s Hundred in England and Wales – and that activity has taken him way beyond his native South Africa, to the Caribbean, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the USA and Australia amongst other locations – as well as, most recently, Belgium!    Rilee tells us all about that Belgian experience in our chat, a chat that took place just after he arrived in Dallas ahead of Major League Cricket in the USA, where he is all set to star for the Texas Super Kings, a side captained by his former South Africa team-mate Faf du Plessis.   Rilee’s breadth of experience is impressive in itself but, on top of that, this year he also became a member of a very select batting club, reaching 10,000 runs in T20 cricket, only the 20th player in the history of the game to reach that mark.   He also has an impressive international pedigree in white ball cricket, with five hundreds for the Proteas in One-Day International and Twenty20 International action, and he has featured for his country in fifty-over and T20 World Cups.   Earlier this year, Rilee topped the run aggregates for the Quetta franchise in the Pakistan Super League and he captained his team in that Belgian T20 competition – so he brings good form and also great knowledge of the format to the Vipers for the Global Super League   And with two years of experience in the Caribbean Premier League with the St Kitts and Nevis franchise, he also brings experience of the conditions the Vipers will be confronted with during the GSL. https://www.thedesertvipers.com https://twitter.com/TheDesertVipers https://www.instagram.com/thedesertvipers/ https://balqiscapital.com

    16 min
  3. Kyle Mayers on playing in the GSL, a Test double-hundred on debut and lots more!

    10 Jun

    Kyle Mayers on playing in the GSL, a Test double-hundred on debut and lots more!

    Send us Fan Mail This time we hear from Barbados all-rounder Kyle Mayers, one of a Caribbean contingent joining the Vipers for the upcoming ExxonMobil Guyana Global Super League that is set to take place in late July and early August. Kyle brings with him a vast amount of experience in short-form cricket, including in the DP World ILT20 where, over the past two seasons he’s played for the Abu Dhabi Knight Riders and the Gulf Giants.   When you add to that the fact he’s played in the Indian Premier League, the Pakistan Super League, the Bangladesh Premier League, South Africa’s SA20, the T20 Blast in England and Wales, Major League Cricket in the USA and, of course, the Caribbean Premier League for more than a decade, it’s plain to see the franchise has secured the services of a player who knows his way around the Twenty20 landscape.   Kyle talks to us about his experiences, including playing in the Global Super League last year for Rangpur Riders, and he gives us some fantastic background on the other players from the West Indies who are linking up with the Vipers in this tournament – left-arm spinner Khary Pierre, left-arm fast bowler Ramon Simmonds and young top-order batter Zachary Carter.   Kyle also explains what the conditions are likely to be in Guyana for the tournament and he reminisces about his unbeaten Test double-hundred on debut as part of a historic run-chase for the West Indies in Bangladesh – one of the greatest individual feats in Test history.   https://www.thedesertvipers.com https://twitter.com/TheDesertVipers https://www.instagram.com/thedesertvipers/ https://balqiscapital.com

    36 min
  4. Kyle Jamieson - the Vipers' new signing for GSL!

    2 Jun

    Kyle Jamieson - the Vipers' new signing for GSL!

    Send us Fan Mail This time we hear from New Zealand fast bowler Kyle Jamieson. Kyle is a new addition to the squad for the upcoming ExxonMobil Guyana Global Super League that is set to take place in late July and early August, replacing Australia left-arm paceman Jason Behrendorff, who has sadly had to drop out through injury.   When we caught up with Kyle he’d just arrived in the UK for a three-match Test series for the Black Caps against England following on from a stint at the Indian Premier League and it’s fair to say he’s looking forward to the cricket he’s got ahead of him over the next couple of months. Kyle has played plenty of Twenty20 cricket over the past eight months as he’s returned to action following a back injury and so he’s in a great space to talk to us about short-form cricket.   He discusses the value of his stint at the Indian Premier League with the Delhi Capitals as well as how much he’s looking forward to the Test series in England and he takes us on a trip down memory lane too, reminiscing about a real career highpoint when he was named player of the match in the inaugural ICC World Test Championship against India in 2021.   For Kyle, the Global Super League – and, potentially, a five-match One-Day International series against the West Indies beforehand – will be his first time playing cricket in the Caribbean and he discusses the possible challenges that will throw his way.   He also chats about his entry into the history books thanks to his scarcely-believable figures of 6 for 7 in a T20 match for Canterbury against Auckland in 2019 and about what he sees as his best role as a bowler in the shortest international format.   There’s also Kyle’s thoughts on how players can come together in a short space of time and gel into a team capable of winning a tournament like the Global Super League, as the Vipers players have to do in Guyana.   https://www.thedesertvipers.com https://twitter.com/TheDesertVipers https://www.instagram.com/thedesertvipers/ https://balqiscapital.com

    23 min

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

This is the home of The Desert Vipers, the Twenty20 franchise side competing in the ILT20, the shortform tournament in the United Arab Emirates with its fourth edition in December 2025 and January 2026. For exclusive interviews and insight from the Desert Vipers camp, this is the place to be. This is Vipers Voices...