UNCAPPED PICKS: Dewald Brevis
Dewald Brevis is a wunderkind.
We continue our “Uncapped Picks” series today with an essay on Dewald Brevis. This is the second piece of the series, and coincidentally, it is also the second piece on Brevis, you can read the first feature on him here: Student of the Game.
“Uncapped Picks”, as the name suggests, will feature the six uncapped players picked by SA20 franchises before the auction. These pieces are designed to bring these incredible players closer to you, the fans. Draw the curtain and allow you to look into their world. We’ll have a new “Uncapped Picks” essay over the next few weeks. It should be really fun. Thanks, as always, for your support!
No. 1 Ottniel Baartman
Dewald Brevis is hungry for success. He is a globetrotting 19-year-old, but inside, he is still the 10-year-old with dreams of playing for the Proteas one day. On his bedroom wall, he has a sign that reads: “In order to become the 1%, you must do what the other 99% won’t do.”
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On the way back from the Caribbean, Dewald Brevis felt like the luckiest kid in the world. He had met Sir Curtly Ambrose and had his signature on a West Indies cricket hat and another on an SA Under-19 cap. The autograph on the Under-19 cap carried a birthday message for his brother, Reinardt. Once upon a time, Reinardt Brevis was a pacer and idolised Ambrose.
Besides meeting Ambrose, Brevis had also met Mahela Jayawardene and developed friendships with the West Indies trio of Rivaldo Clarke, Giovonte Depeiza and Carlton Tuckett, and one of India’s bright young stars, Yash Dhull. He planned to keep in contact with all of them - he would always make time to do so between his studies and cricket.
Brevis had everything worked out as he flew back home from the Under-19 World Cup. Brevis knew exactly how things were going to go for him. He would move on from his boyhood club, Laudium CC, to Tuks. Brevis played for Laudium CC from Under-11 until 2021. He had spent the bulk of 2021 touring with the Under-19 team competing against Division 2 sides.
Brevis had enrolled at TUKS for a BCom business management degree and was going to also join the structure at TUKS cricket in 2022. The transfer from Laudium to Tuks had been completed at the end of the 2021 Premier League season. But, before he played a single innings for Tuks, the Titans wanted him to play in the CSA T20 Challenge. Brevis signed his Titans contract in April 2021. Shortly after his Titans debut, the Mumbai Indians came calling. A lot was about to change in Dewald Brevis’ life in a short time.
In the period between the Under-19 World Cup and his second CSA T20 Challenge for the Titans, Brevis had to learn how to play in different conditions and on different surfaces against a wide range of bowlers, and he also had to learn how to survive as a professional cricketer on the T20 circuit. In a short space of time, Brevis went from a schoolboy to a globetrotter.
Brevis sat down with and learned the game from legends. He received advice from Mahela Jayawardene, Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard, Sachin Tendulkar, Rashid Khan, Dwayne Bravo and Chris Gayle. Brevis’ education was not just T20 cricket-aligned. He asked about the longer formats and everyone was happy to help. Robin Singh, the Mumbai Indians batting coach, also helps Brevis with his red ball batting because they believe that it helps his shorter format abilities.
Years after he had laid his Test cricket ambitions to bed, Eoin Morgan used to train against red balls because it helped his technique. More T20 coaches now realise that mastering the basics of red-ball cricket helps keep players on track and avoid bad habits at the crease. At the Titans, Mandla Mashimbyi and Geoff Toyana take him through red ball batting drills. In addition to using red ball skills and technique to bolster his T20 abilities, Brevis also has Test cricket ambitions.
Brevis received his education in the IPL, an offseason tour with Mumbai Reliance - the Mumbai Indians' team of upcoming stars - the Sixty tournament and then the CPL. His cricket education was fast-forwarded. Brevis’ education also included geography lessons in India, England and the West Indies.
In about seven months, Brevis had to learn what many take years to learn. But, Brevis is a fast learner. In January 2021, Brevis played his first 3-day match. The match was between the Under-19 team and a Division 2 side. At stumps after day one, he shared with Vincent Barnes that this was his first time playing overnight. What stood out to Barnes was how well Brevis adapted to the format.
Brevis enjoys the format. He has not had time to play it, but he has been practising a lot of red-ball cricket, honing his technique.
Brevis adapts to anything cricket-related with alacrity. When he was 12, Brevis played his first 50-over game at the Ethy Mbalathi Cup. Until that point, the most overs he played in a match was 30. Not a lot of people have heard of the Ethy Mbalathi Cup.
If Carl Honu, Steven Dlamini and Ethy Mbalathi had waited five years before having their idea, the Ethy Mbalathi Cup might have grown into a staple in developmental cricket in Pretoria. Unfortunately, the tournament had no sponsors. Mbalathi, Honu and Dlamini financed the tournament from their pockets, due to financial constraints, the tournament ran for only one season. The tournament ran for two weekends at St. Alban’s.
The tournament provided live stats as youngsters were playing. Live stats were not yet a thing back in 2013. The idea was to create an atmosphere of professional cricket. Give the kids a taste of the future. After each day the kids did post-match interviews that were streamed on YouTube. Brevis had his first interview as a cricketer at the Ethy Mbalathi Cup.
The idea was ahead of its time. The Ethy Mbalathi Cup introduced Brevis to 50 overs and took on the format like a seasoned player. During the tournament, Brevis was asked to retire in all his innings. If they had not done so, he would have batted forever. Brevis was the standout performer at the tournament, and when he was named the captain of the tournament’s Select XI, Brevis felt like the luckiest kid in the world.
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There is a steep learning curve between schoolboy and professional cricket. It happens that some cricketers do well at the Under-19 level and then fail to kick on immediately afterwards. Some of them drift away from the game while others take a few years to reach their full potential. But, there are some precocious talents who make the switch with little difficulty.
Dewald Brevis found himself out of his comfort zone almost immediately after arriving home from the Caribbean after the Under-19 World Cup. He had barely unpacked his bags when he was required to pad up for the Titans in the CSA T20 Challenge. In his seven appearances for the Titans, Brevis scored 145 runs at an average of 24.16, striking at 113.28.
A couple of months later when he went to the IPL, Brevis was still a wide-eyed precocious teenager. He did not set the league alight but returned home with respectable figures. Brevis scored 161 runs in seven games a strike rate of 142. After the IPL, he was a young man growing in confidence that he could compete at the highest levels of cricket. He was still rough around the edges, but he showed growth.
Dewald Brevis is an exciting player, there is an air of expectancy whenever he walks out to bat. If CSA had not been in a financial mess when Brevis returned from the IPL, they might have pencilled him down for the next national academy intake. They too were excited by his potential. Brevis showed the same level of promise that Quinton de Kock had exhibited following his Under-19 World Cup.
But that did not happen because the academy is only available in name at the moment. It was one of the casualties of cost-cutting measures CSA put in place when finances went into the red. The absence of the academy is the reason why no SA Emerging side has been playing for a while. The Emerging side is the academy’s competitive name.
It was not just the academy that was affected. SA A has not been playing the volume of matches that CSA would like. SA A last played in May 2022. Their next round of matches is in early 2023, against the English Lions and West Indies A. That is around nine months of no fixtures.
In the absence of the academy, the CSA pipeline relies on its other high-performance structures: senior provincial and varsity cricket. The two structures feed into SA A, which is at the top of the high-performance ladder. CSA resolved to monitor Brevis’ development through his performances for the Titans. So, they checked in with the Titans.
The Titans informed CSA that Brevis was under contract with them and would spend the SA winter playing cricket abroad. Oftentimes, players spend the winter in the UK with county sides or clubs. Brevis would spend a bit of it in the UK with Reliance Mumbai (Mumbai Indians' developmental side) and then in a few months in the Caribbean playing in the Sixty and then CPL.
“Every player travels a different path,” says CSA Director of Cricket Enoch Nkwe.
After the 2014 Under-19 World Cup, Kagiso Rabada played about half a season with the Lions before he joined a touring SA A team and then joined the Proteas almost immediately. Quinton de Kock swapped his Under-19 shirt for a Proteas shirt in a space of five months. He played his U19 World Cup in August 2012 and debuted for the Proteas in January 2013.
Sports fans - and sports writers - love wunderkinder. Their outlier talents buck the norm and upend the natural order of things. When a player like Dewald Brevis shows up, we want them to be fast-tracked. It is often easier to fast-track bowlers because their youthful pace can sometimes be the difference, and they also have a short shelf life. They also mature quicker than batters who require a little longer to learn their craft.
Dewald Brevis has been on the fast track since the Under-19 World Cup and might mature sooner than most batters. He is a cricketer coming up in an age where one can get access to overseas leagues the moment one turns professional. Brevis’ development is several times quicker and more intense than those that came before him. He is in a pressure cooker.
According to CSA, playing in various leagues around the world gives Brevis an edge. It’s a valuable experience. Experience that serves him well in terms of SA A selection, even though it was important for them to have him playing domestic cricket.
Experienced players that include Rilee Rossouw and Wayne Parnell had to play domestic cricket to be considered for the Proteas. At the moment, CSA does not have systems in place that can mimic what Australia did with Tim David. David recently became the first Australian player without a domestic contract to be selected for the Australian men’s national team.
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When you watch Dewald Brevis bat, there are echoes of AB de Villiers in his technique. De Villiers is Brevis’ mentor, but when he started working with the youngster, the echoes in the technique were already there. He played no part in their presence - well, de Villiers did not know he was inspiring them when he did
Well, de Villiers did help Brevis with his batting, but that was later. At the height of the pandemic, during the lockdown, de Villiers and Brevis corresponded a lot. Brevis would send de Villiers video clips of his at-home training and de Villiers offered advice on what to improve on. De Villiers also helped Brevis to develop the right soft skills for professional cricket.
However, in his early years, Dewald Brevis learned cricket by watching and putting his own twist on things he saw. He adapted what he saw to what felt comfortable.
Brevis hit his first switch-hit shot in a day-and-night primary school match. He was 12 years old. He had developed the shot in the backyard where he used to compete with his older brother, Reinardt. The boys would often spend hours on end watching old tapes of cricket matches and then head to the backyard to re-enact what they had just watched. He developed his leg spin in the same way. (*We will discuss his bowling soon. It deserves a separate article.)
AB de Villiers was one of a handful of batters whom Brevis imitated. He watched Kohli and a few others. When he was at Affies, his coach Deon Botes encouraged him to watch a wide range of cricketers and learn from them. Botes was always happy to give Brevis the space to learn and discover his way.
The little bit of similarity in technique is not the only thing Brevis and de Villiers share.
One afternoon, when AB de Villiers was 11 years old, he faced off against his two older brothers, Jan and Wessels, aged 22 and 17 at the time, and their 22-year-old friend Gerrit Dist on a 14-yard pitch. That day, de Villiers played his longest innings in his young backyard cricket career. The club cricket-playing older boys failed to dismiss him. They tried everything, cranking up the pace as much as they could, but young de Villiers was immovable. He wanted to bat forever.
Dewald Brevis also wants to bat for as long as he can. He always has. That is what has helped him to score big. But, Brevis doesn’t just want to score big, he wants to score big at a quick rate. He has always been an aggressive batter. When he was 10, he scored his maiden century for Hennospark Primary School. Brevis hit 15 fours and three sixes to reach an unbeaten 115 from 69 balls. That year he also scored 70 of 36 as he helped his Under-11 team secure a victory against Griquas at a tournament in Klerksdorp.
A year later, Brevis scored his first century for Northerns when he was 11 years old in an Under-11 tournament held at Kearsney College. He scored 140 runs from 82 deliveries. During his Under-15 year at Affies, Brevis had a Bradmanesque average. He averaged 98. In his last match for Laudium CC, Brevis scored around 140 from 88 balls in that match. In 2021, Brevis smashed 140 runs from 119 deliveries for the SA Under-19 team in an encounter against Easterns, the Division 2 side.
On 22 July 2022, Brevis helped the Reliance team overpower Durham by 81 runs in a T20 match in Durham. In the match, Brevis scored 112 of Reliance’s 211 runs. He needed only 49 balls to do it. It was a special innings for Brevis. On 31 October 2022, he played an even more special innings. Brevis broke multiple records on his way to a historic 162 runs from 57 balls.
Each time Dewald Brevis plays, there is a sense of expectancy in the air. And every now and then, he delivers, because he wants to bat forever.