Khary Pierre made his first-class debut nine years ago at the age of 25. Since then, he has played only 35 games in the format and around 13 white-ball international games since his debut in 2018 before getting axed from the side. It’s difficult to break into the national side when your skill is shared by plenty ahead of you in the pecking order. West Indies are spoilt for choice when it comes to the genre of spinners Pierre belongs to: Akeal Hosein, Jomel Warrican, Fabian Allen and Gudakesh Motie. All SLAs, all regulars, and all too good to be replaced.
Pierre, who celebrated his 34th birthday last week, had to bang the door down with his top-of-the-wickets-list performance in the 2024-25 West Indies Championship, where he took 41 wickets in eleven innings.
“I was actually playing CPL with St Lucia Kings when I first got the news,” Pierre said. “It’s a great honour, a privilege to represent the West Indies, something that I dreamt of when I was young, watching the West Indies play, the likes of Brian Lara and these guys, just watching Test cricket. I was really happy, I couldn’t put together words [to describe] the feeling at that moment.”
With Gudakesh Motie rested, Pierre might get his maiden Test cap against India in Ahmedabad. And if that happens, he will be the oldest West Indies player to debut in a Test game since 1973. West Indies’ coach Darren Sammy said Pierre has been awarded for his ‘durability’ within the first-class circuit, but the Trinidadian left-arm spinner believes his penchant for going the extra mile has landed him this opportunity.
“There’s the youth level,” Pierre said. “Going up from under-15, under-17, under-19, and I was in all these things. I made my debut for Trinidad. It was tough, but I never gave up, just putting in the extra work. I always tend to want to do more. Even after practice [I want to] bowl more balls, hit more balls. As I always say, ‘hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.’ I always take that and put it towards my game.”
He was way ahead of the others on the list in the Championship, with Joshua Bishop, the next on the most-wickets list, averaging 25.72 compared to Pierre’s 13.56.
“I was just trying to enjoy my cricket. I think that was the key to my success this season in the Championship. I was taking the outcome out of it and [focusing on] giving a 110%. I’m a cricketer that will always give 110% when I enter the cricket field. I leave everything in the cricket field, blood, sweat, tears, and that was my trademark this season and it paid off. So I’m really happy.”
Cricket West Indies’ (CWI) talent manager Jamal Smith said that Pierre is the kind of bowler who can be relied on to execute the game plan because of his consistency. And Pierre went with the same notion about himself when asked what he deems his biggest strengths while bowling.
“I would say control, consistency, just trying to stay full at the batsman as much as possible. Variations, using the crease, just trying to outfox the batsman. I think that is the aim of any spinner, use angles and stuff like that.”
