LANCASHIRE’S Ashwell Prince will not rush his final decision on retirement.

The prolific Red Rose batsman is coming to the end of an exceptional professional career at the age of 38.

South African Prince initially announced his retirement from the game at the start of 2014, saying he would call it a day at the end of that season. But, after Lancashire were relegated from the LV= County Championship’s Division One, he opted to give it another season.

The expectation is that he will finally pack up his bat at the end of this season, but Lancashire’s players are trying to convince him otherwise.

Prince’s haul of 939 Championship runs this summer with three hundreds plus a double century means he is the leading run-scorer in the country, while he has also been in good touch in Twenty20.

Ahead of today’s Championship clash with Northamptonshire at Emirates Old Trafford, he has admitted that his young family – he has two young boys – will be his primary concern regarding any decision.

“There’s no update at the moment,” he said. “My boys are over here at the moment and are out of school. They are doing home schooling.

“That’s difficult because the schooling is completely the other way around. Everybody is going to go on holiday here soon, so we can’t put them in school here. It’s a difficult situation.

“You have to balance out how much time they miss from school. They go back into school in a month when they go back home, and we’ll assess things and see how it goes.

“At the end of the day, I think family’s the most important.”

Lancashire versus Northants is a fixture that has been kind to Prince.

In five Championship matches against them dating back to 2013, he has scored 557 runs, including 153 in Lancashire’s only innings of the draw at Wantage Road in May.

Last year, Prince scored a career best 257 unbeaten when Lancashire won a Division One home clash.

“Last time around, I got a big score against them. But you start on nought. Hopefully it will be a nice pitch and I can get a few more,” he added.

Leaders Lancashire are looking for their seventh win from 10 matches.

Meanwhile, Prince and company lost Friday’s T20 Blast clash with Birmingham at Old Trafford by one run as they fell short replying to 137-8. They have lost five of nine matches this summer.