Pierre backs 'hard work over talent' as he inches towards West Indies Test dream

Khary Pierre is on the verge of turning his dream of playing a Test for West Indies into reality. He just needed to wait 34 years. Pierre was picked in West Indies' squad as the second spinner for their tour to India, which starts this week, and he was over the moon when he found out.

"I was actually playing CPL, with St Lucia Kings when I first got the news," Pierre said. "It's a great honour, 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."

A part of the youth-cricket system in Trinidad, Pierre had to wait till he was 25 to make his first-class debut. It's taken him nine years to graduate from that level up to Test cricket but through it all he never lost hope. The left-arm spinner has played 35 red-ball matches and taken 111 wickets at an average of 22.81. He also has a first-class century to his name.

"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."

Earlier this year, with 41 wickets in seven games at an average of 13.56, Pierre topped the bowling charts in the West Indies Championship, the regional first-class competition. He attributed this success to his "trademark" quality built around not sparing effort.

"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."

When asked about his strengths, Pierre's response echoed what CWI's senior talent manager Jamal Smith said about him last week.

"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."