After the Chennai Super Kings were forced to issue a clarification on the replacement signing of Dewald Brevis in the IPL 2025 season, former India all-rounder R Ashwin has responded following the confusion that arose from his claims that the franchise may have paid more than the stipulated amount to acquire the South Africa batter’s services.
“I will tell you something. About Brevis. He had a great time last IPL with CSK. In fact, a few teams were talking to him. A few teams left him because of the price. When he was supposed to be signed as a replacement, he was supposed to be signed at the base price. But what happens is you talk to the agents and the player will say, if you give me X amount extra, I will come,” Ashwin had said earlier this week on his YouTube channel.
CSK’s clarification
On Saturday, the five-time IPL champions declared that they had abided by the IPL laws to rope in Brevis mid-way through the IPL 2025 edition. “Chennai Super Kings categorically clarifies that all actions taken by the franchise during the signing process of Dewald Brevis as a Replacement Player during TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 were in complete compliance with the rules and regulations of IPL,” a franchise statement read.
Ashwin responds
“We live in such times where we have to clarify even true stories. In that way, it is a bit tricky. But I won’t go there. There is no one at fault here. The clarification here on this matter has arisen from the fact that a lot of people have doubts. The point is the player is not at fault, the franchise is not at fault, and maybe the governing body is also not at fault. All of us need to understand that if a franchise needs a player, the franchise talks to the player or the player’s agent and tells the BCCI, ‘Look, so-and-so player of ours is injured, we need another player. ’ The matter gets closed there,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
Ashwin said that his words may have been misconstrued and that several teams have made big-money replacement picks in the past, citing Chris Gayle’s example.
“The IPL or those who need to give approval, give the approval, and the player comes and plays. If there was any fault here, that player would not have played in the franchise. This is not about Brevis; it is generally the case. There is one other thing I want to explain. My intention in the video was to describe how well Brevis was batting. We have to understand that every player who plays in the IPL has a tri-parted contract: The player, franchise, and the IPL have a binding contract.”
“So if something is wrong with it, it won’t get ratified. That is why, probably, the tweet that said clause so-and-so makes complete sense. The flexibility that is there with the IPL’s injury replacement, everyone is making use of it. It is not only CSK who have picked a replacement; there have been several other teams. RCB have taken Chris Gayle in the past, and he became a superstar. Injury replacements are a common facet of the IPL, and even in that, the rule flexibility that you have, how you make use of that, within the limit, you can use it. That is the point”.
