For me, the proudest moment came this month when Ashwell Prince was chosen as captain of the South African team and Percy Sonn took over as ICC president,’’ says veteran manager of the South African cricket team, Goolam Rajah.

If someone had told him that non-white South Africans would hold these responsibilities, he adds as Prince and his mates wrap up net practice at the Sinhalese Sports Club on the eve of their practice tour opener, he would have said, ‘‘have you been smoking?’’

Captaincy has come unforeseen and temporarily to Prince. Skipper Graeme Smith is injured, as is his second in command, Jacques Kallis. The 29-year-old middle order batsman had made clear his understanding that the post is an interim arrangement. But the moment is too overwhelming for such reality checks. Prince is the first non-white to lead the Proteas.

It’s been 14 years since South Africa returned to international sport with the dismantling of the apartheid regime. And it has taken exactly that much time for Prince’s achievement to mirror the long way sport and society in South Africa have come.

Putting his feet up later, he recalls South Africa’s return to world cricket, with the ODI against India at Kolkata on November 10, 1991, when Allan Donald took five wickets. ‘‘From that moment I have always dreamt of playing cricket,’’ he says. ‘‘With Unity everything changed.’’

Conversely, however, too much emphasis on colour can fragment into allegations of preferential advancement. Rajah stresses, ‘‘Prince is here because he deserves to be, not because he is the right colour.’’ Taking in the larger debate on removing the post-1991 quota system in South African cricket which has benefited players like Prince and Makhaya Ntini, he sighs: ‘‘It is very difficult to convince the world that things are being done on the basis of merit as well.’’

... contd.