Matt Prior announces retirement from professional cricket

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jun/11/matt-prior-announces-retirement-professional-cricket-england#comments

Quite surprised not to see a thread on this already. Matt Prior, 'The Big Cheese' has retired from cricket after a long struggle with injury. Prior was one of England's greatest wicketkeeper/batsmen who came back from being dropped to establish himself as a key figure in one of the most successful England teams of all time.
Good luck Matt, and thanks for the memories.

A cracking batsman when a crisis was brewing. He had this knack of being to turn around collapses and set about a counter-attack. Certainly one of the best wicket-keepers England have had in the last ten to twenty years.

Thanks for the memories MP.

A fine batsman to have coming in at 7 and at his best a very competent keeper, although this element had to be worked at. Should be a role model for Buttler, who may be an even better batsman, but is definitely a work in progress with the gloves.

One thing that I never quite understood was how Prior could not convert his success as a fast-scoring batsman in Tests into the shorter formats. Maybe put too much pressure on himself to score too fast and so ended up looking to do too much?

The end of a fantastic career!

A great player who would so often come in and take the game away from the opposition with the bat. Very rarely made mistakes with the gloves and played a huge part in the unprecedented success of the 2009-2013 Test team. In my opinion in that period he was the best Test w/k in the game (Dhoni was obviously way ahead in ODIs)

Great player for England thanksfor all you have done matt!!

He was one of the best batsman WK I have seen in test match cricket........at No.7 worth his place as a batsman alone.

Wasn't juts the runs....but when he got them.....in critical conditions...
and how he got them....often times very fast by test natch standards

Game changer with the bat.....from that No.7 slot
Prior and Swann were the tough spine of Eng side in their peak years under Flower.....fighting with a never say die spirit....very Aussie like

good Guy to have in your side

Not too much of a surprise I suppose ; though he had expressed hopes of getting back even quite recently. Clearly had been really struggling to overcome the injury ; and with his age now also against him his chances of returning to Internationals were looking slim ...so you can understand why he has given up the battle.
He deserves all the praise he's getting for his efforts as a key man in England's most successful team of modern times ...a wonderfully effective number seven bat , as has been said above ; could lead a fightback or accelerate a good position into a dominant one - or even save a game , as he did in what ( surprisingly) turned into his last great performance for England , in NZ in 2013.
Plus of course his determination in changing from a basic backstop with gloves when he was first capped into a highly accomplished Test wicketkeeper. Not a natural like Taylor ; but he didn't miss much - at least until his injuries rather spoiled his last few games.
England owe him.

Happy side note : was nice to see a certain ex-teammate , who is understood to be not particularly close these days , sending his best wishes . For all their differences , they did some great things together.

Farewell Matt Prior, magificent keeper-batsman, and one of england's best keeper-batsman, shame to see injury end anyone's career