Matt Prior

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, Prior's keeping was less successful, and he was dropped from the team for the 2008 tour of New Zealand. 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. He retired in June 2015 from all forms of professional cricket due to a recurring Achilles tendon injury.

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. 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.