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This time we’ve got a very special episode for you - and something a bit different.

Coming up we hear from Mickey Arthur, the decorated coach who’s been in charge of four different national teams, and also Tom Bruce, who was part of the Vipers squad in Season 4, the side’s first title success.

And why have we brought these two together for this podcast? Well, they have one thing in common and that is that they both have first-hand experience of the ExxonMobil Guyana Global Super League that the Vipers are set to take part in at the end of July.

Mickey has been coach for Rangpur Riders, the side from Bangladesh that won the first edition and was runners-up last season; and Tom was part of the New Zealand team the Central Stags, which was part of that second season, in 2025.

On that basis they can offer valuable perspectives into what the tournament is like and what it takes to be successful there. It’s a terrific chat with the duo and hopefully you’ll find it a fascinating insight into the event the Vipers are set to be part of for the first time later this year.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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In this episode we speak with one of the heartbeats of the Vipers line-up last season, wicketkeeper-batter Vriitya Aravind.

We speak about his recollections from that title-winning campaign, his reaction to being picked up by the Vipers again, alongside fellow UAE players Matiullah Khan and Sanjay Pahal, for the ExxonMobil Guyana Global Super League and what he is expecting from conditions in Guyana.

Vriitya also tells us what he’s been up to since the DP World ILT20 wrapped up in January, what his build-up to the GSL looks like, playing for Stourbridge in the Birmingham League in the UK, how close he feels to an international recall, and who’s he’s especially excited to be lining up alongside at Providence Stadium.

It's a terrific chat and well worth your time.

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In this episode we’ve got double the usual content for you. First-up, we’ve got a chat with USA wicketkeeper-batter Andries Gous, one of the heroes of the side’s success in season 4 and a player who’s back with the Vipers for the ExxonMobil Guyana Global Super League.

And then once we’ve wrapped up with Andries, we hear from Ben Hardy-Jones, the Vipers’ Sustainability Lead, who tells us all about how the franchise will be looking to promote its green agenda during the tournament on the South American mainland in late July and early August.

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It’s time for the second installment of our two-part chat with Chris Green, the Australian off-spinning all-rounder who’s captaining the team in the upcoming ExxonMobil Guyana Global Super League in late July and early August.

The crux of our conversation this time centred around the tournament to come.

We discussed how many of the Vipers squad for the Global Super League Chris knew ahead of the team assembling in Guyana and he told us about his vast experience of playing in the Caribbean Premier League and how that could be a huge asset for the Vipers.

Chris explained all about the playing surface at Providence Stadium, conditions, and he gave us his thoughts on the teams the Vipers will face in the tournament – the Lahore Qalanders from the Pakistan Super League, hosts and defending champions the Guyana Amazon Warriors, Big Bash League side the Perth Scorchers and the San Francisco Unicorns from Major League Cricket in the United States of America.

Chris also reflected on linking up with Azhar Mahmood, the Vipers’ Head Coach for the tournament, as well as Shane Dowrich, the former West Indies wicketkeeper-batter who’ll be the team’s Assistant Coach. He told us what his preparation will look like to ensure he hits the ground running for the Global Super League.

And finally, Chris got his crystal ball out to give us a prediction for the tournament. It’s a short, sharp event running for less than two weeks, so how optimistic should Vipers fans be?

That’s all coming up with Desert Vipers captain Chris Green so let’s get into it…

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