Retiring Prince could swap pads for boots

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

Middle order batsman Ashwell Prince will hang up his pads in four days’ time - and perhaps pick up his soccer boots.

Prince will play his last game for the franchise in their first-class game against the Cobras at Newlands starting today. Then it’s off to England for his final spell with Lancashire.

When Prince returns to SA, he will consider putting his energies into starting a football academy in Port Elizabeth.

“Twenty years ago, I would probably have preferred to pursue a career in football,” Prince, a passionate Liverpool supporter, said yesterday.

“But the opportunities to do so aren’t there in the PE region and they still aren’t.

“The academy is still only an idea, and it may be a joint cricket and football academy.”

Prince, who turns 37 on May 28, said the growing needs of his sons, Joshua, 6, and Daniel, three-and-a-half, were the main reason for his decision to retire.

“I feel I’ve had a good career and family is more important,” he said. “All the travelling between England and SA has been tough and trying on my family.

“We live in Cape Town now, so the only time I really have a home game is when we play the Cobras.”

SA coach Russell Domingo - who like Prince hails from Gelvandale in Port Elizabeth - took to Twitter to pay his tribute.

“Well done on a fantastic career,” Domingo tweeted. “It was a pleasure to work with you. You’re a true warrior of the game and a great servant of SA cricket.”

Prince made his first-class debut for Eastern Province B in October 1995. He moved to Western Province in 1997-98, and has played 42 first-class matches for the Warriors since 2008. He made his Lancashire debut a year later, and has 44 first-class caps for the county.

In 66 tests for SA between February 2002 and December 2011, Prince scored 3665 runs at an average of 41.64 with 11 centuries. Solid more than spectacular, he could be described as the left-handed Jacques Kallis in temperament terms.

A broken thumb kept Prince out of SA’s 2008-09 series in Australia. His replacement, JP Duminy, played a key role in SA’s first series win there by scoring an unbeaten 50 on debut in Perth and 166 in Melbourne.

Prince did not get his place back from Duminy in the Australians’ tour to SA in the same season, but an injury to Graeme Smith saw him recalled for the third test at Newlands.

Asked to lead the team as well as open the batting, Prince said if he was captain he wanted to decide where he batted. Boucher captained, and Prince opened the batting and scored 150 in SA’s innings victory.

“There have been disappointments but that’s part of the game,” Prince said. “I’ve always tried to use them as motivation to fight my way back into the team.”