Matt Prior

For the rugby league player, see Matt Prior (rugby league).

Matt Prior
Personal information
Full name
Matthew James Prior
Born (1982-02-26) 26 February 1982 (age 42)
Johannesburg, Transvaal Province, South Africa
NicknameBig Cheese[1]
Height5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
BattingRight-handed
RoleWicketkeeper-batsman
International information
National side
Test debut (cap 635)17 May 2007 v West Indies
Last Test17 July 2014 v India
ODI debut (cap 187)5 December 2004 v Zimbabwe
Last ODI26 March 2011 v Sri Lanka
ODI shirt no.23
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
2001–2014Sussex (squad no. 13)
2010/11Victoria
2012/13Sydney Thunder
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC LA
Matches 79 68 242 222
Runs scored 3,920 1,282 12,832 5,072
Batting average 40.83 24.19 39.24 27.26
100s/50s 7/27 0/3 27/74 4/28
Top score 131* 87 201* 144
Catches/stumpings 217/13 71/8 611/41 187/31
Source: CricketArchive, 19 February 2014

Matthew James Prior (born 26 February 1982) is a South African-born English former cricketer, who played for England in Test cricket and for Sussex County Cricket Club in domestic cricket. He was a wicket-keeper and his aggressive right-handed batting enabled him to open the innings in ODI matches, even though he made very limited appearances in shorter forms of the game. With an international Test debut score of 126, Prior became the first English wicket-keeper to hit a century in his debut match in early 2007. His glovework, however, was criticised. Despite a successful tour of Sri Lanka with the bat,[2] Prior's keeping was less successful, and he was dropped from the team for the 2008 tour of New Zealand.[3] He returned for the 2008 series against South Africa, and was retained into 2009, where he became the second-fastest England keeper to reach 1,000 Test runs, behind Les Ames.[4] He retired in June 2015 from all forms of professional cricket due to a recurring Achilles tendon injury.[5]

Prior was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and moved to England with his family at the age of 11. His mother is South African and his father is English.[6] Prior attended Brighton College during which time he began playing for Sussex County Cricket Club. During his early years he played his colts cricket at St Matthias CC. He is married to Emily, the daughter of former footballer Sammy Nelson, who played for Arsenal F.C. and Brighton & Hove Albion, and has two children.

Prior was the co-owner and chief executive of One Pro Cycling, which raced at the UCI Continental level in 2015,[7] and were promoted to the second-tier Professional Continental level for 2016.[8] The team was disbanded in 2018.

  1. ^ Pilger, Sam (14 May 2013). "England's beating heart". ESPNcricinfo. ESPN Sports Media. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  2. ^ "Test series in Sri Lanka, averages". BBC News. Retrieved 22 December 2007.
  3. ^ "England drop Prior for NZ series". BBC Sport. 4 January 2008. Retrieved 4 January 2008.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference 'Sport'_Article was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "England wicketkeeper Prior retires". BBC Sport.
  6. ^ "Confident Prior shows few fears on facing second examination", The Independent, 2007-05-20. Retrieved on 17 September 2007.
  7. ^ "Matt Prior co-founds One Pro Cycling team". bbc.co.uk. 9 December 2014. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  8. ^ "Matt Prior's One Pro team granted their Pro Continental licence". The Guardian.co.uk. 9 November 2015.