Sourav Ganguly Settles Decades Old Score With Stephen Fleming With Epic SA20 Auction Stunt

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly joined the Pretoria Capitals as their new head coach for the upcoming edition of the SA20 league. The auction for the 2025 season took place on Tuesday, as all the franchises spent whopping sums in order to strengthen their squads. An interesting bidding war took place between the Paarl Royals and the Joburg Super Kings to acquire young Proteas batter Dewald Brevis. The 22-year-old batter plays for the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, and the Joburg Super Kings wanted him badly for the South African T20 franchise league as well.

Stephen Fleming, the coach of both CSK and Joburg, went all out for Brevis during the auction and was involved in a bidding war with Kumar Sangakkara's Royals. When the bidding reached the 10 million rand mark, the Royals backed out, giving a sigh of relief to Joburg.

However, Ganguly had other plans in mind. He smartly intervened, and the Capitals acquired the services of "Baby AB" at a record fee of 16.5 million rand (approximately Rs 8.31 crore).

"You know, he got me out too many times when he was captain and we went to New Zealand. On the green, seaming pitches, he had fielders all over, and they kept decking around all the time. So this was an opportunity to beat him, and we went past him," Ganguly said after the auction.

Brevis was associated with the MI Cape Town franchise since the league's inception in 2023, having made 676 runs in 32 matches and 29 innings at an average of 29.39 and a strike rate of over 145, with four half-centuries and a best score of 73*.

During his franchise's maiden title win last season, Brevis had a breakout season, scoring 291 runs in 10 matches at an average of 48.50 and a strike rate of 184.17, with two half-centuries and a best score of 73*, according to Wisden.

The 22-year-old, who has now made his South Africa debut across all formats, is in red-hot form in T20s this year, with 995 runs in 30 innings at an average of 43.26 and a strike rate of over 186, including one century and six fifties. He was also one of the few positives for five-time Indian Premier League (IPL) champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in their wooden-spoon campaign, scoring 225 runs in six matches at an average of 37.50 and a strike rate of 180.00, with two half-centuries.