Prior's spirit undimmed by quiet exit

As an England wicketkeeper establishes his place in the new world order, it is an opportune moment to reflect on one who held a lofty place among his contemporaries and also those that had gone before.

Few doubt that Jos Buttler will go on to be remembered as a great England one-day cricketer. His extraordinary innings on June 9 was a reinforcement rather than an announcement and he could well gain that status in Test cricket too. But there should be no forgetting the man from whom Buttler took the role last year.

The news of Matt Prior's retirement came as no shock, but that did not dissipate the sadness. While the current England team try to build a new era, another link has been removed from what was, if only for a short period, a cricket team that could be called the best. So could their wicketkeeper.

For a moment, just soak in a few of Prior's statistics: 4099 runs; 256 dismissals, the second most for England behind Alan Knott; an average of 40.18, fifth among all players to have kept in at least 25 Tests, third among those to have reached 50 matches and second only to Adam Gilchrist above 75 caps; plus a strike-rate of 61.80, which puts him among the elite and is testament to his selflessness and also an ability to counterattack.

Prior's last days as an England cricketer - and, as it transpired, a professional cricketer full stop - were to be sprawling around while conceding 36 byes against India at Lord's and then hooking Ishant Sharma to deep midwicket. He was not fit and he should not have played. The fact he did was a final act of the bloodymindedness that had made him such a priceless asset to England since his second coming as a Test cricketer in late 2008. From the comeback, until being dropped in Australia during the 2013-14 Ashes tour, Prior only missed one Test and that was for the birth of his child in early 2009 on the tour of West Indies.

Not that the alternative ending would have been perfect, but in sport that rarely happens. After being dropped following the Perth defeat in December 2013, he performed his 12th man duties in the final two Tests on tour with the same gusto and team spirit (whatever Kevin Pietersen may say) that had been apparent while scoring his 4000-plus runs and taking his hundreds of catches. It was time for England to move on, but you can understand why they were lured back to Prior after his years of service and the desire to gel together a young team.

Prior's last great act as an England cricketer was one that embodied his career. Auckland 2013 and, in hindsight, a tour of New Zealand that would show the cracks of what would follow: a lack of swing away from home, Pietersen's fitness and how tough life would be without Graeme Swann. On the final day at Eden Park, England were heading for certain defeat: five down at lunch, seven down at tea.

Two days previous he had been the player to front up to the media after England had subsided in the first innings, in which he had made a standout 73. "I know it feels like the world's over, but it's not really," he said. "We've got some very good cricketers who can put in match-winning, or match-saving performances. The thing I love about this team is we might do it the hard way, but we fight - and we keep fighting."

He was talking, as ever, about the team. But so much could be applied to the man himself. On the final day he entered at 159 for 6 and more than four-and-a-half hours later defended the final ball of the match from Trent Boult then raised his arms aloft in triumph.

That would prove to be the last of his seven Test hundreds, the first of which came on debut against West Indies at Lord's in 2007, but that grand entrance did not prove a smooth pathway for the remainder of his career. By the end of the year, following a difficult home series against India, where he was drawn into a controversy over jellybeans on the pitch, and a tough tour of Sri Lanka, where his dropped catches drove Ryan Sidebottom to distractions, he was discarded. Already, a career was at a crossroads.

The way he returned to the Test side, in late in 2008, was a credit to the hours of hard work he put in, and would continue to put in for the rest of his career. It is something he has since continued to show in setting up a new venture in the cycling world. He nearly gave up wicketkeeping for good to focus on his abundantly natural skills as a batsman - his cover drive was matched by few - but was talked around by Alec Stewart, his former manager, while the forming of a chance friendship played a vital role.

After being dropped he went to the England Academy at Loughborough and trained with the Lions side, which is where he met former Nottinghamshire and England wicketkeeper Bruce French. "I'd never met the lad before and we clicked straight away," French told the Guardian in 2013."

The player that emerged after that meeting became one of the premier wicketkeeper-batsmen of his era: from the period of 2009-2013, Prior was the most prolific of the lot in front of the stumps and increasingly secure behind them. He was a vital cog in England's brief dominance of the Test stage; stood alongside the slips of Swann and Andrew Strauss he was at the hub of the team.

His career-best score would remain his unbeaten 131 in Trinidad, but it was at the time of a run of three centuries in five Tests in 2011 - from the end of the victorious Ashes campaign in Australia into the following English summer - that his batting peaked.

Yet in many ways, the biggest credit to Prior was how, as England reached their peak but struggled to hang on, he refused to fade. He battled in the UAE, stood up to South Africa, fought in India and then shone in New Zealand to be named England's player of the year in 2013. There looked to be much more to come. The man himself certainly thought so, although his words on receiving the award - which was quickly followed by a pair against New Zealand at Lord's - were sadly prophetic in many ways.

"There has been a lot of stuff said. It's a fickle world, if I punch one...I'll be rubbish again. Everyone else can say their bits, I'll just concentrate on catching as many balls as I can and keep working hard. In years to come, when hopefully I've played a few more years and caught a few more catches, we can see where I sit."

Regardless of the way his England career ended, however, Prior should be in no doubt about where he sits.