Ashwell Prince

Ashwell Prince Biography

Ashwell Gavin Prince is a left-handed batsman, who played for South Africa. He was born on May 28, 1977, at Port Elizabeth, Cape Province.

Ashwell is known for being the only non-white man to captain South Africa cricket team.

He is extremely famous for his gritty middle-order batting.

Debut

His debut was for Eastern Province B against Griqualand West B in the UCB Bowl on 27 October 1995.

Later, he played his first match for the full Eastern Province team.

Prince made his test and ODI debut for the country in the year 2002.

Early Career and Struggle

Being a non-white, he had to struggle a lot and got into the team only after years of proving his worth in provincial cricket.

He ended with scores of 49 and 28 in his Test debut, in an embarrassing mauling against arch-rivals Australia in 2002.

He carried forward with a match-winning 48 in the third Test of that series, thus dispelling doubts about his ability.

Rise to Glory

He has played 52 ODIs in 5 years and 66 tests in 9 years. His highest score is 119 against Australia in Sydney 2006. During this time he became a bunny of Shane Warne.

In the 4th test against West Indies in Antigua, Prince and Jacques Kallis recorded a mammoth 4th wicket partnership of 267.

He was made the captain of the injury of Graeme Smith in July 2006. Although they lost that series, his performance was commendable.

Low Points

The 2007 World Cup will always remain one of the lowest ebbs of his career, as he could not make runs all through South Africa’s run to the semifinal, where they were mauled by eventual champions, Australia. He was one of those players who, at first, did not receive any bid at IPL auctions, but later, he was bought by Mumbai Indians.

Clubs

This 40 years old South African player has played for South Africa, Western Province, Africa XI, Eastern Province, Mumbai Indians, Nottinghamshire, Lancashire, Warriors,& Western Province Boland.

Records

He has 5th wicket record in Jacques Kallis vs West Indies in Antigua 2004-05 and 6th wicket in Mark Boucher vs Bangladesh at Centurion in 2008.

Captaincy

He has the record of being the 1st non white man to captain the South African cricket team but most of the matches did not turn out to be in favor of the African team.

Retirement

In 2013, his central contract of captaincy was not renewed but then had some extension and finally in 2014 towards the end of he finally retired and moved to England.