Kings ransom sees Brevis return to his hometown for SA20

Vinay Chopra, the director of the Super Giants franchise, sat with his right arm raised, a paddle with the Durban Super Giants emblem on it in his hand — and he didn’t move. 

The amount of money went up at a dizzying rate. The SA20 organisers had anticipated, that one of Aiden Markram or Dewald Brevis, the two biggest names up for purchase at Tuesday’s player auction, would break the R10m mark. They both did — Markram heading to the Durban Super Giants for R14m, a figure surpassed 12 minutes later, when Brevis was sold to the Pretoria Capitals for R16.5m. 

Those exorbitant figures were driven by the Capitals, who came to the auction with the biggest spending purse and were desperate to add local flavour to a team, who floundered last season. 

Most importantly they needed to take advantage of the parochial audience they play in front of at SuperSport Park. 

Newly installed head coach Sourav Ganguly bid heavily for the Northerns pair. 

He lost out to the immovable Chopra. 

The Super Giants boss has had good teams in the first three seasons, but other than finishing runners-up in the second season, Chopra has watched them stumble in the play-off stage. He knew Markram well from the Proteas T20 captain’s successful stint with the Super Giants’ IPL franchise, based in Lucknow. 

Markram had scored five half-centuries for them this year. “They obviously built a good relationship during the IPL,” said Heinrich Klaasen, who Durban retained this year, and who sat alongside Chopra at the auction.

“We needed a good captain, he’s led the Sunrisers to three finals, that is a big reason.”

In England, where he was preparing to captain the Proteas in a three-match T20 series, Markram refused to talk about his new team, but did emphasise there was no bad blood with the Sunrisers. 

Markram’s decision to opt back into the auction clearly paid off was based around getting greater value for himself, and judging by their reaction, the Sunrisers ownership were sad to lose him.       

Having lost out on Markram, Ganguly was not going to do the same when Brevis’ name came up for bidding. First the Paarl Royals, then MI Cape Town and finally the Joburg Super Kings — who’d wanted Brevis back in yellow after he’d impressed for Chennai as a late injury replacement in the last two weeks of this year’s IPL — bid unsuccessfully. 

At R16.5m Ganguly had his man — returning the Pretoria-born Brevis to Pretoria. 

“In IPL, the domestic players have a lot of value and it is the same here,” said the former Indian captain. “He’s exciting, his game has got better. In auctions it’s important not to relate money with the quality of the player — its supply and demand. In terms of having quality for our ground, we had to go for it. He’s a game-changer.”

Brevis recently made the highest T20 International century for the Proteas, scoring an unbeaten 125 against Australia. He is already a household name, and with the SA20 taking place in the heart of the cricket season next summer, his superstar status will shine even brighter. 

More than a third of the total R131m purse was spent in the opening round, which included the Super Kings paying R9m for Wiaan Mulder, while Kwena Maphaka joined Markram in Durban, for R2.3m.

The next highest figure was the R7.4m Durban splashed out on Gerald Coetzee, while the Sunrisers sought to replace Markram by paying R6.1m for Matthew Breetzke, which given his form of late for the Proteas in ODIs, is a bargain. 

Nandre Burger also went for a princely sum, with the Super Kings picking him up for R6.3m. 

Among the surprises who went unsold, was all-rounder Andile Phehlukwayo, who set his base price at R500,000 but received no bids across three rounds. Test captain Temba Bavuma was also not sold.