"If I Had a Choice, I Wouldn’t Have Raised My Bat to Them"– Ashwell Prince Citing Racism Accusations on Teammates

Former South African batsman Ashwell Prince has come out accusing his former teammates of racial discrimination while he was part of the squad. Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) Social Justice and National Building hearing has already seen quite a few witnesses testify regarding the same issue.

Recently, AB de Villiers denied any such claims that indicated that the Protean batsman asked for the exclusion of Kagiso Rabada in his formative years. Mark Boucher was also accused by a former player and he stated that he will respond to the allegations in due time. In the latest such testimony, Ashwell Prince said playing for South Africa never felt like a dream.

“You think that you’re playing for your country, that you’re living a dream, but it was no dream.  We weren’t a team,” he said.

Lungi Ngidi supported the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement back in 2020 which triggered a few more teammates to join in while accusing former players of racial discrimination. Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza, an independent ombudsman, heard Ashwell Prince and another player, Paul Adams’ testimony.

“If I had a choice, I wouldn’t have raised my bat to them” – Ashwell Prince

In a Test match against Australia, Prince was asked to open the batting even though he doesn’t usually play in that position. He went on to score a century but Prince was miffed about ‘quota player’ remarks that were made against him by his teammates earlier in a league game.

“I raised my bat to my parents, then to my wife on the other side of the stadium, and then, lastly and reluctantly, I raised my bat to my teammates. If I had a choice, I wouldn’t have raised my bat to them. We weren’t a team,” Prince revealed.

Prince further went on to accuse former coach, Gary Kirsten, of having rejected a player’s suggestion of discussing South African history during a team bonding session. Issues such as ‘Black Lives Matter’ would not have been controversial, had topics like these been spoken about between people, according to the left-handed batsman.