The innocence of youth is a precious asset and new Pretoria Capitals star Dewald Brevis will not allow his record-breaking R16.5 million price tag to alter this golden commodity.
Brevis, 22, was the fulcrum of a bidding war between the Capitals and Joburg Super Kings at last week’s thrilling Betway SA20 Season 4 auction in Johannesburg.
After playing for the past three seasons at MI Cape Town, Brevis was placed out in the open market and immediately attracted the attention of Capitals head coach Sourav Ganguly and his Joburg Super Kings counterpart Stephen Fleming.
The JSK mentor knows all about Brevis’ abilities after bringing him in as a replacement player at the Chennai Super Kings during last season’s IPL. The 22-year-old thrilled the Yellow Army at the Chepauk Stadium and Fleming was hoping Brevis would do the same at the Wanderers during the upcoming SA20.
But Ganguly was determined to lure Brevis back to his hometown and won the bid with a new SA20 auction record.
Brevis is determined, though, not to let the price tag affect him personally.
“No, not at all. Like I’ll remain the same. I’m not going to change who I am as a person,” Brevis told Sky Sports.
“I’m just playing to enjoy it, playing for God, and I think just always to have fun and to enjoy it, to play with a smile.”
Someone that knows all about hefty price tags is fellow Pretoria local Heinrich Klaasen. The former Proteas master blaster is the most expensive retained player in IPL history in 2025 with a close to R50 million bounty hanging over his head.
Klaasen has offered a few choice words to Brevis, in regards to his market value being determined by “what he has done before” and “not about what he’s going to do.”
Brevis, who holds the record for the highest score by a Proteas batter in a T20 International, has certainly paid close attention and is willing to take it on board.
“I saw someone (Klaasen) said something about it’s not … it’s a reward for what you’ve done. It doesn’t have to put pressure on you to perform. So, you just keep going and enjoying it.
“That’s always what I remind myself to do, to keep it simple, like to just be myself and not try to be someone else or try to be too clever for the game.”
Brevis occupied various roles from opening the batting to finishing off the innings for MI Cape Town during the first three Betway SA20 seasons. The former SA U19 prodigy is not too fazed about where he bats for his new team, Pretoria Capitals, as long as he can impact the game.
“I’m happy to bat anywhere. I’m not too fussy about it. I’ve actually got a lot of experience over the last few years to bat one, two, three, four, five,” Brevis said.
“So yeah, wherever it is, I enjoy it. I really like the middle. It’s almost when you come in and the Powerplay is done, everyone is out.
“It’s literally trying to play every ball on merit. I’ve trained a lot and it’s a lot of repetition of stuff, but that’s just me being in the moment and reacting to the ball.
“I do back myself whenever I’m out there. I basically just watch the ball, even if I have to go over fielders, I don’t mind.”
