Tributes pour in for Prior as he announces retirement due to injury

Matt Prior has received plaudits from England colleagues past and present after announcing his retirement from all professional cricket, at the age of 33, because of injury.

The former England wicketkeeper failed to recover full fitness after undergoing surgery on his Achilles tendon at the end of last summer – and has called time on his career, on medical advice.

Prior played the last of his 79 Tests against India at Lord’s 11 months ago.

He had hoped to return for the start of this season but has reluctantly decided instead there will be no comeback.

Prior, a member of three Ashes-winning teams, hit seven Test centuries and was a renowned counterattacking force in the England team which rose to number one in the International Cricket Council rankings four years ago.

He said: “Today is a very sad day for me as I am forced to announce my retirement from the game I love.

“I had been hoping and expecting to be fit for the

start of the 2015 season. Unfortunately, this has proved impossible, and I have now had to reach this decision.”

His former Test captain Andrew Strauss, current vice-captain Joe Root and even the exiled Kevin Pietersen – whose autobiography contained vitriolic criticism of Prior – have all spoken of his contributions to England’s success. Root said: “I think he can be immensely proud of what he’s achieved in the game.

“He is a three-time Ashes winner who helped England get to number one in the world. Coming into the side, he made me feel very welcome from the outset.”

Meanwhile, England can only strive to somehow revisit perfection after setting the bar for their new era impossibly high in the record victory over New Zealand.

As the Royal London Series moves on to the Oval today, Joe Root is not about to rule out another performance of the same magnitude achieved at Edgbaston on Tuesday – when England piled up more than 400 for the first time in their history enroute to a record 210-run win.

Root, one of the Birmingham centurions alongside Jos Buttler, knows nonetheless that the remainder of the five-match series presents a significant and telling test of the hosts’ new adventurous methods.

England resolved, after their winter of woe at the hands of New Zealand and others in the World Cup, to come out firing with bat and ball – and they delivered brilliantly at their first attempt.

“Obviously the way we played there was pretty much the perfect performance,” said Root.

“I suppose our challenge now is to try and do that more consistently.”

and, inset, as a prolific batsman for his country