'I wanted to prove my community could also shine on the big stage'

Subash Jayaraman: Growing up in the apartheid era, what made you choose cricket?

Ashwell Prince: People might have a misconception that cricket in South Africa was only a white-person sport. Where I grew up in Port Elizabeth, there was a rich culture of the game. It was not just after the country was united in 1994 that we started playing cricket.

SJ: The quota system is always raised as a reason why a non-white player might be included. If a white player is included, nobody questions the motive behind it.

AP: In the initial years that was always an issue. But as you can see in the performances now of the current players - Hashim Amla being the captain of the Test team, Vernon Philander being one of the top three seam bowlers in the world, and other names too: JP Duminy, Makhaya Ntini, who was right there at the start… Yes, there were various people who were always questioning players' selections, and I suppose there will always be that situation. But the only way to prove your worth to the team is by going out there and producing results, which these guys are doing at the moment.

SJ: Do you see a role for the quota system in South Africa?

AP: It goes without saying that some people in this country grow up in vastly different and challenging circumstances than others. I am fortunate to be privileged, to live where I live because of what the game has given me. My children are able to go to some of the top schools in the country, whereas I wasn't able to have that in my own time. But what we had back then is what we had, and we made the most of it. It brought challenges with it. We tried to overcome them.

SJ: What were those experiences as a young boy playing cricket? What are the experiences as a cricketer in post-1994 South Africa?

AP: Post-'94, was my senior year at school. In 1993 and 1994 we integrated with the white schools and started playing representative cricket as a mixed team instead of only non-whites together and whites separated. Once we got the opportunities to be able to show what we can do, it had nothing to do with the colour of the skin. People got opportunity, and that is what you need - an opportunity to show what you can do.

SJ: When you made your debut for South Africa, I am sure there were voices that questioned the legitimacy of your selection. You went on to disprove those with your bat. What were your feelings when you scored those big hundreds?

AP: I was more or less in the first generation of non-white guys to make my first-class debut, back in 1995. There were other non-white guys before me in the national team, like Ntini, Herschelle Gibbs, Roger Telemachus, Henry Williams, Paul Adams. But you are right. There were those who questioned my selection. The one thing that drove me was to prove that people from my community, given the opportunity, can also shine on the bigger stage. Today my record is nowhere near someone like Amla or Philander's, but I think I can at least say I made a small contribution to the team when I was there.

SJ: I am sure you think you deserved to play a lot more than just 66 Tests. What happened?

AP: We had just lost a Test against Sri Lanka, which was two losses in a row. In the previous series we had won the first Test and lost the second, and then Sri Lanka came and we lost in Durban. I suppose a couple of Test losses at home, so someone had to make way. Unfortunately it was me. People who had supported me throughout my career said that it was harsh. On so many occasions I had bailed the team out when in trouble. On this occasion, when I maybe had three games where I didn't have a decent performances - that is all it took, three games, and not bailing the team out. I played 66 Tests for my country, I've got no regrets. To be quite honest, I am not missing Test cricket at all. I enjoy watching, and this is my first week of commentary and I enjoyed it in the commentary box.

SJ: You were a middle-order batsman, but in that Test against Australia in 2009, you were made to open. You were given the captaincy, but you didn't have the option of where you can bat in the order.

AP: How do you know all these things? You got the story spot on! I had a strange message from the convenor of selectors at that time, Mike Procter. He said, "I have got good news and bad news. The good news is that we want you to play and captain the team. But the bad news is that you have to open the batting." I called him back and said, I am obviously happy to be back in the team and delighted you guys are considering me to be captain again, because I had once stood in as captain before on a previous tour [in Colombo] when [Graeme] Smith was injured. But if you are making me the captain, I am batting at No. 5, because that is where I had batted and had the most success in my career. If you are telling me that I have to open the batting and I can't bat at No. 5, then you have to find a different captain.

I was only prepared to be captain on my terms, which I think is fair enough. I don't think any other Test captain in the world would be told, "You have to open the batting."

SJ: There was another side to this story, as I have heard: You wanted AB de Villiers to open if you were chosen the captain. But Jacques Kallis was given the captaincy and he made you open. There is a story that there was a provincial game around the time in which you were captaining your side and AB was in the opposition. You had your bowlers have a go at AB and kept calling him "golden boy". How true or not true is that?

AP: That is not true! I wasn't telling any of the bowlers to have a go at AB. In fact, I don't think I was even captain of that match. I think Johan Botha was the captain of the Warriors. But there were some verbals in that match involving various players. I don't want to dwell on what was said to whom.

To come back to your question about me saying AB should open in the Test, I basically suggested it to Mickey Arthur, the coach. I asked him why AB couldn't open the batting, seeing that up to that stage he had opened the batting for quite a number of his Test matches. I had never opened in my Test career.

SJ: How did you adjust to being an opener, technique-wise and mentally?

AP: My game was built on being tight technically. When I was 18-19 years old, I was much more of a dasher. But I soon realised that if I kept batting that way I was not going to get any success in Tests.

In that particular match it almost felt like it didn't matter to me where I batted in the line-up. If they put me in at No. 1 or 3 or 5 or 7, wherever, I had a point to prove, with a lot of anger in me.

I hurt my thumb in Australia and missed the tour. At that time I had broken into the top ten batsmen in the world. Mickey Arthur was standing right in front of me as I was leaving the tour. He pulled me aside and said, "Look, you have been one of the guys who form the backbone of this batting line-up. As soon as your thumb is ready to play, I guarantee you that you will get your place back." That had been the precedent set when other players had gotten injured. If there were established players in the team, once they were fit again they get their place back.

When in South Africa, I was fit for the first Test [against Australia]. Everyone, the selectors too, was under pressure because JP Duminy put the ball in their court. He was outstanding on the tour to Australia. If I was the selector, I wouldn't have left JP out. Nonetheless, I still believed that there was an opportunity to play both JP and myself in the same team. But that would have meant that AB had to keep wickets. Of course we all know that AB didn't keep wickets and I was left out of the team.

When it got to the third Test, Graeme Smith was injured and Neil McKenzie was left out of the team and I was asked to open the batting. I wasn't going to be a long-lasting success as an opener. But that game was one where I had a lot of anger in me and I was out there to prove a point - just throw it at the selectors' face.

SJ: Would I be right in saying that if you were to be included and AB were to keep wicket, Mark Boucher would have to be dropped?

AP: That could have been a possible solution, yes.

SJ: But that couldn't happen because of the team leadership, or the "clique"?

AP: I am not going down that line. I am only saying that in terms of form, the selection could have happened. I believe that I was producing my best in my Test career [at that time]. If they really wanted to have me in the team, they could have made a way.

SJ: In your playing career, there was a time Shane Warne got you out in five out of six innings. Who were the toughest bowlers you had to face - spinners and pacers?

AP- Shane Warne got me out plenty of times. I remember at the SCG, as a left-hander, with Shane bowling in the rough a lot of the time, I really found it difficult. Sometimes the conditions were more in my favour rather than his, like the day I got a century against him.

I feel my technique against fast bowlers was okay. But the guy who was obviously hard to play was Glenn McGrath, because he just puts you under pressure all the time. There are no loose balls to hit, you can't release the pressure.

SJ: In terms of innings that you were part of as a fielder or a team-mate, is there an innings you remember as your favourite?

AP: In 2005, Brian Lara scored centuries in back-to-back Test matches in Trinidad and Barbados. In Trinidad I was fielding at backward point and he must have had five guys in the ring on the off side with probably just one slip. Fast bowlers were bowling to him with just one slip, and we basically tried to stop him from scoring. We also had a cover, a square cover, an extra cover and mid-off. He was hitting the ball through them all like he was toying with us. For me, he is the best I have played against.

Somebody else who really stands out is Ricky Ponting when he scored a century in the first and second innings in Sydney. That was something to watch.

SJ: Which of your innings do you recall where you feel you were playing really well and the opposition was tough? Which innings comes to your mind as your favourite?

AP: Early in my career, I scored a hundred in Sydney. That was my second chance in Test cricket. I played my first chance in Test cricket with six to seven Tests. I didn't do much, just scored a couple of 40s and got dropped. I got the second chance at Test cricket. I scored a hundred against Zimbabwe and West Indies, but we were in Australia again and I was coming into the third Test without a big score against my name. Had I not scored a hundred in that game it might have been the end of my Test career. I took a lot of confidence from that century, knowing that I can score a Test century against Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee.