Former Proteas batsman Ashwell Prince has urged young players coming into Test cricket to back themselves and believe in their capabilities at what he described as a “higher level” than domestic cricket.

Prince, who made his Test debut for South Africa in 2002 against Australia and went on to score over 18, 000 first-class runs in his career, also added that players needed to “seek out” opportunities to get noticed by provincial teams.

“I think the main thing is to believe in yourself when you go from a domestic level to a higher level,” said Prince, speaking exclusively to Cricket Fanatics Magazine on Day 3 of the first Test between South Africa and the West Indies.

“Stepping up to a higher level, which is test cricket, you can often doubt yourself and ask questions about whether things that you do at a lower level will withstand or be good enough to be successful at test level.”

“It’s about believing in your ability and what you’ve got in terms of your technique, your character, and your make-up—if it’s good enough to be successful at the domestic level and your efforts have been recognized there, and therefore you’ve been selected to a higher level, then trust those characteristics and skills and believe in yourself.”

The 45-year-old, who also captained South Africa at one stage in his career, encouraged players to not overthink situations and understand that as they grow up, so does the level of the game.

“Sometimes you just tend to think that it’s going to be hard and maybe you have to change this and that because you’re moving up a level, but every time you move up, the level does move up a little.

“It’s the small things that change really. As a batter, for instance, the only thing that changes is that you get a lower percentage of bad balls, and that’s the basis of where you begin in test cricket.”

The Proteas are currently playing a two-match Test series against the Windies, with the 4-Day series happening on the side. Despite all of that, many young players, predominantly coming from high schools or provinces starved of cricket, struggle to fight their way into provincial teams.

Prince also had a few words of encouragement for them:

“Seek it out,” he said.

“Every talented youngster is blessed with a lot more attacking abilities than others, solid techniques, and long periods of concentration.

“If you’re that guy, you’ve got to seek out those opportunities. Where are they in terms of coming from a province that’s loaded with top batsmen? You’re not going to get in immediately, but be prepared to move somewhere.

“Even if it means moving to a second-division team and scoring runs there, the best thing you can do is have two or three first-division provinces get into a bidding war to try and get your services, and as a young star, you wanna go where you can get the most game time,” he concluded.