Ashwell Prince quits selection panel post

Ashwell Prince, former South African middle-order batsman, has resigned from his job as a national cricket selector as he shifts his focus towards full-time coaching.

Prince was perhaps the most experienced cricketer in the national selection panel, which also includes convener Linda Zondi, Hussein Manack and Errol Stewart. Prince featured in 66 Tests, 52 One Day Internationals (ODIs) and a one-off Twenty20 International for South Africa, in a career that lasted nearly a decade.

Prince coached the South Africa' A' team on their recent tour of Australia and a potential 'conflict of interest' was one of the major reasons for his decision to quit the selection panel. "I was working on the SA A tour (to Australia last month) as a coach," Prince said.

"I do want to venture into coaching and... there's a conflict of interest with me being a selector and working quite closely with the players. It's probably not fair to the players that I work with some of them and understand their weaknesses and then take that into a selection meeting.

"On the back of that I thought the best thing to do was to put my energies into where I thought I could make a bigger difference," Prince added.

Prince has been sounded about a possible coaching offer with the Cape Town based-Cobras franchise - headed by chief coach Paul Adams, but has said that he's still undecided. "(Cobras head coach Paul Adams) has approached me but I'm still weighing up my options," he said.

On its part, Cricket South Africa (CSA) hasn't officially announced Prince's resignation nor has it selected his replacement.