Former India cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin left the world of cricket in utter shock as he hinted as the Chennai Super Kings potentially paid ‘a little extra’ to sign South African prodigy Dewald Brevis as an injury replacement in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season. Brevis came into the team as a replacement for Gurjapneet Singh, vacating a total of Rs 2.2 crore to be spent on Brevis, who had a base price of Rs 75 lakh but went unsold in the auction. As Ashwin revealed that players and their agents usually ask for bigger sums to be spent on them, as getting sold in the auction usually sees them earn much more. This statement by the former India off-spinner, and Brevis’ current CSK teammate, triggered a big controversy, forcing even the IPL franchise to clarify.
Seeing the Super Kings needing to issue clarity on the signing of Brevis, Ashwin too shed some light on the unnecessary controversy, saying these days even true stories are required to be clarified.
“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 in a video on his YouTube channel.
The veteran off-spinner highlighted that if there was anything suspicious with the signing of Brevis, the IPL Governing Council would not have given their approval to sign the South African star. Ashwin also cited the example of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), who have signed players like Chris Gayle in similar deals in the past.
“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,” said Ashwin.
To sum up, Ashwin feels CSK struck gold with Brevis, even as they signed him as a replacement player.
“I watch a lot more cricket. I don’t pay too much attention to these things (on the Brevis-CSK controversy). Nowadays, we make YouTube videos, and we give our opinion in these videos. The ones who watch the videos don’t tend to do anything out of the ordinary. The ones who don’t watch the videos can read the statement and twist the story. Unfortunately, in today’s times, folks can watch smaller videos, read shorter headlines. There is nothing wrong there. Dewald Brevis is a fabulous player, and the way he is batting, CSK has struck gold. Whoever has made the decision they have taken a fabulous decision,” said Ashwin.