He retired from all forms of professional cricket in June 2015 due to a recurrent Achilles tendon injury, which was the cause of his retirement.

Early Life

Originally from Johannesburg, South Africa, Prior moved to England with his family when he was 11 years old, where he has remained since. Prior was born on born 26 February 1982. His mother is of South African descent, and his father is of English descent. Prior attended Brighton College, where he began playing cricket for the Sussex County Cricket Club. He was a member of the St Matthias Cricket Club's colts team during his early years. He is married to Emily Nelson, who is the daughter of former Arsenal F.C. and Brighton & Hove Albion footballer Sammy Nelson, and they have two children.

Career

Domestic Career

Prior was the recipient of the NBC Denis Compton Award for young cricketers on three separate occasions throughout his career. He had scored more than 1,000 first-class runs over the course of two seasons: in 2003 when he helped Sussex win the County Championship, and in 2004, when his 1,158 runs, which included a 201-run unbeaten inning against Loughborough UCCE, was enough to make him Sussex's leading run-scorer for the season. His total of 874 runs in 2005 was lower than his previous season's total of 874 runs, but he was reinstated as Sussex's first-choice wicketkeeper after sharing the position with Tim Ambrose the last two seasons. He has won the County Championship three times (in 2003, 2006, and 2007), despite the fact that he did not participate as much as he would have liked in 2007 due to his England commitments.

England Career

When England played Zimbabwe in a one-day series in 2004, Prior made his One Day International debut, opening with Ian Bell and scoring 35 runs before being dismissed by Ed Rainsford in a 74-run win.

Prior was then called up to the England squad for the One-Day International series against Pakistan a year later. In the first match of the series, he opened the batting and scored 45 runs, helping England to a 42-run victory over Pakistan. His next game saw him score 32 runs, but England lost by seven wickets, bringing the series to a 1–1 tie. Prior struggled in the following three games of the series, despite having a solid start to the series. He scored two runs in the third One-Day International before scoring six runs in the fourth match as England lost by 13 runs. While Prior only managed nine runs in the final game of the series, England won the game. Pakistan won the series by a score of 3–2.

Prior was retained in the One-Day International (ODI) squad for the series against India. Prior had a good game in the first game, scoring 22 runs as England lost by a score of 39 runs. In the following match, he scored 33 runs, but England was defeated once more, albeit by a smaller margin. He was run out with 37 runs in the next game as England suffered yet another defeat. Prior scored 14 runs in the fourth game of the series, as England lost by four wickets for the second time in a row. After sitting out the fifth game of the series, Prior returned to the field for the sixth, batting lower in the order. England won by five wickets. During the final match of the series, England was defeated once more, this time by seven wickets, with Prior contributing only two runs to the team's total.

In 2008 he got another chance to prove himself, and he was selected in the team to play against South Africa and India. The series wasn't that great again, but he did perform amazingly well in 2009 while playing against West India. He was also awarded the Man of the Match in the game. After the same, his game got better, and he played several matches in the coming years. In 2015, he broke the news of his retirement, and his fans were left heartbroken. The last game that Matt played was in 2014.

Talking about the statistics, he scored seven centuries in his Test career, and his highest had been 131 against Pakistan. He had a batting average of 40 in his test career.

Personal Life

Matt was also honored with NBC Denis Compton Award. Later in his life, Matt decided to get married to Emily Prior. Emily's father was in Arsenal F.C. and played for them for almost his life. Matt's wife gave birth to two children after their marriage. One of them is a boy, and the other is a girl. It is estimated that the former cricketer earned 700 thousand GBP a year, but his net worth is not known. It is assumed that he is an ultra-high net worth individual.