By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
South Africa’s batter Dewald Brevis was the big beneficiary of a bidding war between the Paarl Royals and Pretoria Capitals at the SA20 auction.
Capitals acquired Brevis for a new record fee of R16.5 million at the Season 4 auction in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
Brevis, 22, is regarded as one of the world’s most exciting young talents and was the subject of a fierce bidding war between several franchises and his former franchise, MI Cape Town.
He is currently playing for South Africa in the ongoing white-ball series against England and is in fine form having made a blistering 125 from 56 balls in a T20 against Australia in August.
Meanwhile, England’s leading Test wicket-taker James Anderson went unsold alongside former all-rounder Moeen Ali and batter Jordan Cox.
Seamer Reece Topley was picked up by the Super Kings and batter Dan Lawrence was signed by the Royals.
Tristan Stubbs previously held the record for the most expensive player at R9.2 million and that number was also broken earlier in the day as there was plenty of interest in the Proteas’ all-rounder Aiden Markram, who eventually ended up with Durban Super Giants for R14 million.
Capitals had the most to spend as they had only retained three players including England all-rounder Will Jacks. Under new coach Sourav Ganguly, they also added South Africa spinner Keshav Maharaj and seamer Lungi Ngidi, alongside England quicks Craig Overton and Saqib Mahmood.
Other signings included former South Africa skipper Quinton de Kock and quick bowler Anrich Nortje moving to Sunrisers Eastern Cape,
541 players entered the auction for just 84 spaces, with 25 of those available for overseas players.
The fourth edition of the tournament will take place between 26 December and 26 January. It is an earlier time slot than previous tournaments to avoid a clash with the T20 World Cup in February and March.