MI Cape Town captain Rashid Khan set to keep a close eye on Dewald Brevis at SA20 auction

MI Cape Town captain Rashid Khan is hoping the Betway SA20 champions will be able to retain Proteas star Dewald Brevis at next month’s auction in Johannesburg.

Brevis has been playing alongside the Afghanistan superstar Khan since SA20’s inception three seasons ago, while they were also on the winning side together for MI New York in the inaugural Major League Cricket Season.

However, it was last season when Khan saw the best of the talented youngster after Brevis played a pivotal role in guiding the Newlands-based franchise to their first SA20 title with 291 runs at an average of 48.50 and strike-rate of 184.17. Coupled with a few stunning catches in the outfield, it earned Brevis the SA20 Rising Star award. 

But this was still not enough to entice the MI Cape Town hierarchy to keep hold of Brevis when the franchise’s pre-list signing list was unveiled last month, which includes Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, George Linde, New Zealand swing bowler Trent Boult and West Indies blaster Nicholas Pooran.

Brevis, though, sent a timely reminder with a blistering 125 not out off 56 balls in the second T20I against Australia this week. The mega six-hitting display saw Brevis become the holder of the highest individual T20I score by a Proteas batter - surpassing Faf du Plessis’s mark set back in 2015. 

Khan, who was recently unveiled as a Red Bull global ambassador, was unable to provide clarity on Brevis’ release, but was hoping to be reunited. 

“It's a difficult question,” Khan said in an exclusive interview with Independent Media organised by the Austrian energy drinks supplier.

“I don't know how things happen, why not. But, you know, it's always, there is something that goes there and here.

“But hopefully, Brevis has performed really well for us in the last couple of years and three years, you know, that we deliver always the best. 

“Hopefully, we get him back and in the team where he finishes the game for us.”

MI Cape Town are likely to face a bidding war for Brevis’ services when the players go under the hammer on September 9 with Pretoria Capitals’ a potential suitor. 

The Capitals have a major advantage over MI Cape Town as they have a vastly superior R32.5million spending power in comparison to the defending champions’ R11.5 million.

This financial scenario could even place MI Cape Town out of the reckoning with the newly-applied “Right To Match” card that teams are able to utilise when wanting to keep a player that has represented them in the past. 

Khan will still be keeping a close eye on the auction proceedings, especially after thoroughly enjoying leading MI Cape Town to their first-ever title last season. 

“My first trophy as a captain was massive. For me it gave me lots of relief. You know, we didn't manage it in the first year I was a captain and then, you know, I got back surgery, didn't come for the second year and could see the result,” he said.

“We always came at the bottom, even though we had the best, best team. But sometimes things don't work, you know. And, last year, when I was called yes, you want to lead the team, I said, yes, definitely, I want to lead the team.

“And I want to lead it in a different way of my own mindset. Like, you know, that first year, my first time experience managing a team outside in the leagues was a kind of different feeling. 

“But now I'm mentally and physically ready for that opportunity to get and to lead this team.

“So yeah, definitely, I will be somewhere sitting in and see how things go. Hopefully we have a productive and good auction.”