USA named a cricket team that will be playing a T20 series against Canada with two familiar names in South African cricket.
Cape Town, born left-arm seamer Shadley van Schalkwyk and Welkom born attacking wicketkeeper batter Andries Gous, have been picked by the United States of America as part of their T20 squad. The two players will be preparing for the T20 World Cup as part of the USA Team. The ICC T20 World Cup will be hosted in the USA and West Indies in June 2024. The two former South Africans will look to make sure they secure their places in the US squad for the World Cup.
Shadley debuted in South African domestic cricket as a Western Province player in 2008 against KwaZulu Natal Inland (AET Tuskers). The WP team had Paul Adams as a captain and had the hard-hitting Richard Levi.
At the end of that season, Shadley would move to the Eagles now known as Recon Tactical Knights. The Knights team had some big players like Ryan McLaren, Thandi Tshabalala, Morne van Wyk, Rille Rossouw, Victor Mpitsang, Loots Bosman, Dean Elgar, Dillon du Preez, Ryan Bailey and Boeta Dippenaar as the captain. A young Reeza Hendricks would join the team as well a season after Shadley had joined the Knights.
Andries would later join the Free State setup in 2012 as a 19 year old teenager. In his debut match, Shadley was playing with other familiar names like Rudi Second, Nicky Boje, and Leus du Plooy, who would share the dressing room with Andries.
Ironically, one of the players that Andries played against would also play international cricket but not for South Africa in Devon Conway.
Both players were among a wave of South African players that left for the USA when the US was trying to ensure they had a strong domestic cricket circuit. The strong US domestic scene was important because the US wanted to launch their own franchise cricket tournament. In order to launch such a tournament and ensure its success and sustainability, Cricket USA had to make sure there is a strong contingent of local US players.
By the time the tournament launched in 2023, Shadley, Andries, and other South Africans were deemed local players in the tournament. The two players had a reseaonably successful tournament in the Major League Cricket.
After not experiencing any senior international cricket, but u19 cricket for South Africa. Andries will finally realise his dream of playing international cricket at a major event. He will be joined by his fellow South African, Shadley.
35 year old Shadley does not have much time to play international cricket, unlike the 30 year old Andries. The T20 World Cup will be a good PR platform for Andries as the USA is in the same group as India, Pakistan, and Ireland. They will surely fancy themselves against Ireland.
Four6Out 