USA’s Andries Gous is the most high-profile Associate player in T20 cricket. A dashing wicketkeeper-batter, the 32-year-old has featured in the PSL, CPL and ILT20 apart from being one of the faces of the MLC in the USA. More recently in the ILT20, he cracked an unbeaten 120 off 58 balls, the highest individual score in the league, to put Desert Vipers on the path to their maiden title.His form for USA in the 2026 T20 World Cup hasn’t been as spectacular and he’s been struck down with illness as well. But USA coach Pubudu Dassanayake is hopeful of having his T20 trump card back for their high-stakes clash against Namibia in Chennai on Sunday. Gous, who was born in Welkom in South Africa’s Free State province and played domestically in Bloemfontein before switching to the USA in 2021, will cross paths with some familiar faces on Sunday.“Jan Frylinck used to be my room-mate (laughs). I’m also good friends with Namibia’s captain [Gerhard Erasmus],” Gous tells ESPNcricinfo on the eve of USA’s game against Namibia. He’s the one guy from Namibia who plays franchise tournaments around the world, so we see each other a lot. The Namibia side used to play in South Africa as a domestic team.
“Some new guys now but there’s still some boys I played against. It’s going to be exciting. They also will have a point to prove and I think it’s going to be a really good game. I have a lot of respect for them – Namibia are always hard fighters.”
The respect will be mutual. When Gous was playing domestically in South Africa, his range was limited, but exposure to different conditions has raised his game to a new level. Besides the aforementioned T20 gigs, he has trained with the Sydney Sixers and Sydney Thunder Big Bash teams in Australia and has worked with former India batter Pravin Amre during a three-week batting camp in Mumbai.
“I’ve been lucky, especially from an associate point of view, to play most of the leagues around the world,” Gous says. “As for MLC, my coach is Ricky Ponting. I don’t think there’s anybody better at batting more than him. And then there’s at Vipers we had Neil McKenzie, James Foster, Tom Moody. So it’s, I mean, there’s the experience and the world-class players themselves.
“I’ve been lucky, especially from an associate point of view, to play most of the leagues around the world.”
Andries Gous
“It [Behind-the-wicket] shots is one thing I’ve had to improve. Now I play a lot of T20 cricket everywhere. So you got to find ways to score a lot of runs and people block you off some places. So you just got to find new ways to score and new ways to be effective and have an impact. You just got to learn new things and try to keep staying ahead of the game.”
Gous’ new-found ability to access the zones behind the wicket especially came to the fore during his century in the ILT20 Qualifier 1 against MI Emirates. He scored 31 off eight balls in those zones, against an attack that included two mystery spinners – AM Ghazanfar and Arab Gul, who is a clone of Rashid Khan.
“I think it’s not the first time I have faced Ghazanfar as well,” Gous says. “I faced him, I’m not sure if it was earlier in T10 or somewhere. Then obviously we had some footage on Arab Gul that day. So we knew what he was going to do. But I mean, in my team alone, we had Noor Ahmad, we had Usman Tariq and Qais Ahmad. So I had enough mystery in my team alone to face in the nets as well (laughs). It’s just about not thinking too much, just still play the ball as you see it.”
Another upside of these franchise gigs is the chance to reconnect with his old friends from South Africa. At Washington Freedom, he has shared dressing rooms with the likes of Marco Jansen and Anrich Nortje.
“Me and Anrich are of the same age. We played a lot of first-class games and List A games against each other in South Africa,” Gous recalls. “Marco is just a special talent. When Marco was 18, he actually came to the franchise I was playing at to get his first contract. So for that season and a half, he played in my team. Then Washington Freedom happened. He loves golf, which I do too, but Marco is the better golfer (laughs).”
In a twist of fate, Gous came up against South Africa in the 2024 T20 World Cup. Though he top-scored in that game with an unbeaten 80 off 40 balls, USA ended up losing in North Sound. Gous never imagined playing against the country of his birth.
Andries Gous has featured in the PSL, CPL and ILT20 apart from being one of the faces of the MLC in the USA•ILT20
“Growing up, the plan was always to play for South Africa,” Gous says. “It’s like your dream was to play for South Africa and now you’re playing against them. So it was quite emotional in that sense. But, you’re trying to win the game and do it for USA. I think we’ve proved to the world in that game that we are pretty good contenders in T20 cricket.”
While growing up in South Africa, Gous looked up to AB de Villiers, of course, and Morne van Wyk, his former team-mate at Knights. Gous has fond memories of catching up with de Villiers after the solitary match he played against one of his heroes.
“AB was the guy every single person in South Africa looked up to. I mean, he’s the greatest cricketer of all time in batting,” Gous says. “Jacques Kallis was the other one everyone looked up to. For me, coming from Bloemfontein, Morne van Wyk too. We call him Megatron because he just scored runs for fun and didn’t always get the credit he deserved.
“That game against AB was unbelievable. I think the special thing about that game was after you lose, normally in South Africa, you go into the change room and have a beer together. And AB just called me and said, come sit next to me. He gave me a beer and we just started chatting. That just sums up AB as well. He’s never bigger than anyone and spends time with everyone and he gives everyone the time to learn from him.”
“You just look at other sports in America where you feel like cricket can make an upward curve and be successful. I’ve always thought America was that place.”
Andries Gous on MLC
Gous also marvels at the fitness of Faf du Plessis who “ages like fine red wine and keeps getting better and better.”
Gous doesn’t want to sit with his skills either. He suggests that his stints as a T20 globetrotter will serve him well even beyond his playing career.
“I’ve never been scared to ask a lot of questions,” Gous says. “I think that’s going to help me whether I want to go into coaching afterwards or just help me in my cricketing career right now. So I’m just trying to give myself the best chance possible to perform.”
Gous sees the MLC growing from strength to strength in the future. He cites the MLC as one of the reasons for his move to the USA.
“You just look at other sports in America where you feel like cricket can make an upward curve and be successful,” Gous said. “I’ve always thought America was that place. When you spoke to the people about the plans they had for MLC and for the World Cup and all those things. MLC right now is one of the overseas players’ favourite tournaments.
“I think from a cricketing point of view, sharing changing rooms with world-class coaches, world-class players, can only help Americans develop their game. We’ve seen how much the local players improve from season one to season three. I’m excited for season four. It’s definitely because of MLC that we’re seeing a lot more USA guys getting picked for tournaments across the world.”
Gous is a shining example of that.
Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
