Ashwell Prince: Winning as a diverse team means everything to South Africa
REAL SUCCESS Ashwell Prince celebrated South Africa's World Test Championship win, highlighting the profound significance of diversity and unity in the team's historic success. Picture: Michael Sherman/IOL
Image: Michael Sherman/IOL
The Proteas victory in the World Test Championship (WTC) as a truly diverse team was the most special moment of South Africa batting coach Ashwell Prince's career.
That's quite a statement for the gritty left-handed batsman that played 119 games for South Africa across all three formats. The majority of those matches came in the 66 Tests where Prince scored 11 centuries and as many 50s.
Since transitioning into coaching, harnessing all the available talent became one of the keys for Prince.
That's why when the Proteas beat Australia in the WTC final at the home of Lord's led by Temba Bavuma and featuring Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi and Keshav Maharaj it was a moment of unadulterated pride for Prince.
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Prince Reflects on the Significance of Winning as a Diverse Team
'It's the most special thing in my sporting career. I remember being a young coach at the Cobras. And it's exactly something that I mentioned to my team back then that I want to achieve. But if you achieve that at provincial level or franchise level, the Titans are not going to be happy about that. I'm talking about winning as a diverse team,' said Prince.
'Other provinces won't be happy about that because that's one province winning. But when you achieve that as the country, this is exactly what it is about. And so, to have the opportunity to be a part of that, it's truly special. It's a special occasion for all of us and for the country.'
As the batting coach, it would be expected that Prince's role would always be quite technical for his willow warriors, but he explained how his strategy for their run-chase in the fourth innings was purely a mental approach.
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