Ashwell Prince

Ashwell Gavin Prince (born 28 May 1977) is a former South African cricketer and captain who played all formats of the game for South Africa.

At the age of 29, he became the first non-white man to captain the South African cricket team when he stood in for the injured Graeme Smith in two Tests.

He took on the role of batting consultant with the Bangladesh cricket team in mid-2021 but resigned in early 2022.

He is currently a guest commentator with ABC Grandstand for the Australia-South Africa Test series in Australia.

Prince moved from Eastern Province to Western Province in the mid-1990s under the instruction of Duncan Fletcher who saw potential in him.

Ashwell played two seasons for English cricket team Morecambe Cricket Club in his earlier career.

Prince started his career with Eastern Province in the 1995/6 South African cricket season.

Since then, he has represented Western Province, Western Province Boland, Cape Cobras, and Warriors in South Africa's domestic competitions.

He has also had spells in England, first at Nottinghamshire and later Lancashire.

Ashwell Prince made his first-class debut on 27 October 1995, playing for Eastern Province B against Griqualand West B in the UCB Bowl.

Two matches later, on 1 December, he played his first match for the full Eastern Province team.

Opening the batting with Philip Amm, Prince was dismissed leg before wicket by fast bowler Roger Telemachus without scoring in each innings.

Recounting the incident 14 years later, Prince remembered the match as his first-class debut.

Western Province won the 2000–01 SuperSport Series.

After scoring 539 runs in the competition, Prince was named the club's player of the season.

During the South African winter, Prince underwent an operation on his shoulder.

In 2002, Prince made his Test and One Day International (ODI) debuts for South Africa.

He played 52 ODIs between 2002 and 2007, and 66 Tests between 2002 and 2011.

All eleven of his international centuries came in Test cricket, in which he averaged 41.64.

His first match after the procedure was in February 2002 for South Africa A against the touring Australians.

Prince made his Test debut in February 2002, against Australia at the Wanderers.

His inclusion in the side was partly due to the quota system in South Africa.

He however justified his spot in the side by making 49 and top scoring.

In the third Test at Durban he narrowly missed out on a half century again but his 48 was influential in his sides victory.

In 2002–03 he struggled in series against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and was dropped from the team.

With good form in domestic cricket he came back into the side in 2004–05 and played two Tests against the Zimbabweans.

In the second match he made his maiden Test hundred, finishing unbeaten on 139.

In the 1st Test at the WACA Ground in Perth during the 2005–06 season he alleged that sections of the crowd were calling him kaffir, a racial slur referring to "African slaves".

Later in 2006 New Zealand played an away series in South Africa and after they managed an 8 for 593 declared at Cape Town Prince made an unbeaten 108 to help his side escape with a draw.

With Graeme Smith injured, who usually led the team, and Jacques Kallis unavailable, Prince was named as South Africa's captain for their two-Test tour of Sri Lanka in July 2006.

He was their first ever non-white and Haroon Lorgat commented "Ashwell's appointment is a non-event although the enormity and significance of it should not be missed".

This was enough to get him a ticket on the plane over to the West Indies and in the fourth Test at Antigua he made 131 and set a South African 5th wicket record partnership of 267 with Jacques Kallis.

The South Africans travelled to Australia the following summer and then met up again on home soil.

Throughout both legs of the series Prince had trouble facing up against Shane Warne, being dismissed by him seven times in the six Test matches.

Along with his debut series which was played against Australia Prince had fallen victim to Warne a total of eleven times (the highest of any South African batter in Test cricket).

Despite this he still managed a couple of good innings.

The first came in the third Test at Sydney where he again batted well with Kallis and made 119.

Three matches later but this time in South Africa, Prince top scored in South Africa's first innings at the Wanderers and made 93.

During the Australia leg of the series the South Africans are said to have copped racial abuse with Prince being one of the victims.

He originally announced his intention to retire from professional cricket at the end of the 2014 English cricket season, but stayed on for another season before announcing his retirement for the second time in September 2015.