In Ravichandran Ashwin’s words, Chennai Super Kings landed themselves a ‘crown jewel’ by signing Dewald Brevis as an injury replacement earlier this year during IPL. However, he may have inadvertently
let slip how the franchise might have exploited a loophole by paying the rising South Africa star above his base price to ensure he put pen to paper.
CSK signed Brevis at his base price of Rs 2.2 crore per an official IPL release and replaced the injured fast bowler Gurjapneet Singh. The rising South Africa star played in six games for the struggling team and scored 225 runs at a strike-rate of 180.
He recently cracked a maiden T20I century for South Africa against Australia and broke several records including that of the youngest to do so from his country. His stellar show must have been music to CSK’s ears after enduring their worst IPL campaign.
Brevis though was in high demand during the IPL despite going unsold at the two-day mega auction last year. Ashwin says multiple teams were in talks with the 22-year-old batting prodigy but backed out as they weren’t willing to pay anything extra to secure his signature.
“Brevis had a wild second half of the season for CSK,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel. “I heard 2-3 teams were in talks with him, but they weren’t willing to pay extra, so negotiations fell through.”
It was then, Ashwin says, that CSK entered the fray and agreed to the amount that Brevis wanted. “CSK swooped in and sealed the deal. Brevis’s ask was simple: ‘If I come now and do well, my value goes up. So pay me for that value.’ CSK nailed it by getting him for whatever number he negotiated. Now, they’ve got themselves a crown jewel,” Ashwin said.
“I genuinely feel CSK cracked their combination in the back half, and they’ll head into the mini-auction with Rs 30 crore in hand, with the potential to assemble a tournament-winning side. CSK’s next season is looking prime and proper,” he concluded.
