16 Facts about Ashwell Prince – The gritty South African

Ashwell Gavin Prince is a left-handed middle order batsman for South Africa. Prominently known as, Ashwell Prince, is a strong player through the off-side and has a high-batted stance. He is noted for his gritty style of batting and also for being an acrobatic fielder at the covers. 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 a second time in September 2015.

1. Born on:

Ashwell Prince was born on 28th May 2016 in the city of Port Elizabeth, Cape Province.

2. Major Teams:

Prince had featured for South Africa, Africa XI, Eastern Province, Lancashire, Mumbai Indians, Nottinghamshire, Warriors, Western Province and Western Province Boland.

3. Personal:

Prince is married to Melissa Kistensamy. The couple tied the knot in 2006.

4. First non-white man to captain the 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.

5. First-class debut:

Prince made his first-class debut on 27 October 1995, playing for Eastern Province B against Griqualand West B in the UCB Bowl and two matches later, on 1 December, he played his first match for the full Eastern Province team.

6. International breakthrough:

He made his first international appearance in the Test match against Australia at the Wanderers. The quota system in South Africa was partly a reason for his inclusion in the side, but he justified his selection by top scoring for his team in the first innings on debut, making 49. In the third Test at Durban, he scored 48 runs, which was so crucial in the side’s victory.

7. Set back at 2002-03:

By the start of the 2002-03 season, his form had fallen away horribly, and he failed in four consecutive home Tests against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, which saw him making his way out of the side.

8. Cement his position in ODI side:

He had played some valuable knocks in the middle order against the West Indies and England at home. Those performances saw Prince becoming a regular member of the South Africa one-day side.

9. Best innings of his career:

In early 2006, Prince scored a fine 119 in the third Test against Australia at Sydney, which was a hard-fought innings. He also has a good record in Australia where he scored 205 runs in 3 Tests, with the best of 119. This clearly tells that Prince acted as a bridge and always pulled South Africa out of trouble.

10. Shane Warne’s bunny:

In 2006, in the Test series, he became bunny to the Australian spin legend Shane Warne. Warne dismissed him in the first five innings. In all, Warne snapped up wicket 11 times in his career.

11. Role assigned in ODIs:

Prince doesn’t have the highest of strike-rates [67.77] in ODIs, but that is what the role was assigned to him. Prince once said in an interview that he would only bat if the team was struggling by losing early wickets, otherwise, guys like Justin Kemp, Mark Boucher, or Shaun Pollock would bat. His role was to make sure the team recovers when they are in trouble.

12. T20I Career:

Prince had played just one T20 international in his whole career which was against New Zealand on 21st October 2005 in Johannesburg, where he was run out for just 5 runs off 6 balls.

13. Recorded highest partnership in First-Class cricket:

Alviro Petersen and Ashwell Prince shared a partnership of 501 runs for Lancashire against Glamorgan at Colwyn Bay recently in the County Championship in England. The partnership of 501 runs is the highest between two South Africans in First-Class cricket history.

14. Prince as a bowler:

Prince had picked up just one international wicket which came in Test cricket. He had just bowled 16 overs in Test cricket and 2 overs in ODIs.

15. The ‘5+0’:

During his ODI stint for SA, Prince had a number of ‘5+0’ attached on his shirt. This was a mark of respect for the late Hansie Cronje who wore the No. 5 shirt during his career and this number was retired following his death. Hansie Cronje died in a plane crash in 2002.

16. International Records:

Prince, along with Jacques Kallis has the highest 5th wicket partnership of 267 with Jacques Kallis against West Indies in Antigua 2004-05 and a 271-run partnership with Mark Boucher against Bangladesh at Centurion in 2008.