Woeful Prior a liability claims Chappell

[King]

Cricket: Matt Prior admitted yesterday that he has just endured the hardest week of his career, but there may be worse to come. When it comes to criticism of the England wicketkeeper, the gloves are well and truly offMore... Woeful Prior a liability claims Chappell By CHRIS FOY - More by this author » Last updated at 22:11pm on 14th August 2007 Comments Matt Prior admitted yesterday that he has just endured the hardest week of his career, but there may be worse to come. When it comes to criticism of the England wicketkeeper, the gloves are well and truly off. After struggling through the npower Test series against India — dropping catches and posting low scores — Prior, 25, has been dismissed as "woeful" by Ian Chappell. The respected former Australia captain has seen enough to argue that England will not regain the Ashes with the Sussex player in their team — even taking a swipe at coach Peter Moores in the process. Two costly fumbles and a firstinnings duck in the series finale at The Oval have seen Prior's position come under scrutiny following a dazzling debut against the West Indies in May when he scored a century at Lord's. Despite Prior being renowned for his self-belief, Chappell's outspoken attack will do little to raise his battered morale. "I cannot see how England are going to win against decent sides with a wicketkeeper who is woeful," said Chappell, 63. "Matthew Prior is so far off being an international wicketkeeper at Test level. In one-day matches he'll probably be terrific and that's fine, but Tests? Forget it. "An old skipper of mine, Les Favell, said that once a wicketkeeper starts costing you games he's got to go. Matthew Prior is in that category. "England have got to seriously look at how they judge wicketkeepers because they are making huge mistakes. What we've seen lately with Geraint Jones and Matt Prior just isn't going to work. They got very lucky in the Ashes in 2005 but they've got to revisit the way they select wicketkeepers. "No way in the world are they going to win against Australia with a wicketkeeper like that. He's going to let somebody off — Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Michael Clarke — and boy you're going to pay heavily for that." Rounding on Moores, a former keeper himself, Chappell added: "It's an indictment on the current England coach. I'm told he's had Prior since the Under 13s and if that's the footwork from that coach from under 13 to now, they've got a problem." Prior will be well aware that critics are now scrutinising his every move. He will know that a few more errors in the forthcoming one-day NatWest Series would re-awaken the perennial debate about England's wicketkeeping position but he is trying to take it all in his stride. "This week has been the hardest week in my cricketing life, without a shadow of a doubt," he told BBC Sport. "My performance has been criticised but I am still learning. Mistakes do happen — we're all human. I am my own biggest critic but I don't feel I suddenly have to criticise or scrutinise myself massively." Moores, who spent years coaching Prior at Sussex before becoming national academy director en route to the England job, feels sympathy for his protege but recognises that he faces a daunting test of character in the coming weeks. However, he sensed the first signs of a revival in the latter stages of the match at The Oval. "In the second innings he started to come out of himself,' said the England coach. 'I thought he kept well and lifted the team. He showed real fight and resilience and then for him to be there at the end (scoring 12 not out) was a real feather in his cap. "It's a tough place to play your cricket if you make mistakes. The key is whether he bounces back. He can look back on the summer and say he has a Test match average close to 40 and he kept pretty well. "He's made some mistakes but he's learning and he's getting better at this environment. The challenge is whether he becomes mentally stronger. If he does, and he gets through Sri Lanka as well, then he can start to become one of those nuggety Test match cricketers that everybody wants."

[King]

Ian Chappell is ruthless. I know Matt Prior struggled big time but there is not point changing WKs every series. I hope England stick by him and continue to work with him. Now all the comments Matt Prior did in the first test must be haunting him. I remember him riling up Karthik hinting him of Dhoni's ability to hit the ball. Karthik's come off as the best batsman for India and Matt Prior has hit nadir. So much for the mental disintegration. In fact Prior's lost his focus trying to disintegrate Indian players mentally.

[Ram]

Prior saved SOME face by batting out 10 overs in the english 2nd innings in the third test. If he had gotten out earlier and england were all out , all gloves would have been off in taking a dig at him. Surely, no keeper should be dropped on the basis on one bad test series , especially after coming off having a good series , as Prior had against the Windies. But Prior's loss in Jones/Read's gain. If either one of them keep making runs and Prior fails in the next series , then i am sure he would be replaced. One piece of good news for Prior - England dont play their next test till december.

[King]

The problem is you can lose focus if you start harping a bit too much. I think he completely lost it in the first test trying to get under the skin of the Indians. Sreesanth also had a taste of that in the 2nd test but he didn't really sacrifice his aggression in the third test but kept a check on it. There needs to be good balance between gamesmanship and self focus. I think Prior was way too over confident and didn't do enough homework. He took success for granted after he had a good series against West Indies. Prior was completely exposed behind and in front of the wicket.

[Ram]

Excellent Observations Ravi , especially about him getting cocky after the Windies series.

[Donny]

Any team invites this problem if they select their wicket keepers on batting ability first. I remember when Rod Marsh was first selected for Australia. He was an average keeper who could bat. He quickly attracted the nickname of 'old irongloves' and with good reason but to his great credit, he went on a fitness regime, lost weight and worked hard on his keeping. It paid off and he became a vital cog in the great (ironically) Ian Chappell led Aussie team of the 70s. Geraint Jones was another selected more for his batting but wasn't able to overcome his keeping flaws and, when the runs also dried up, he was shunted. His replacement, Chris Read, seemed an excellent keeper but wasn't persevered with for reasons best known to the English selectors. From Read's Cricinfo profile: "Read has established himself as the tidiest gloveman in English cricket, although like Jack Russell before him, such an accolade is no longer a guarantee of one's selection." A keeper's batting ability really cannot cover for behind the stumps blunders. I see players like Gilly and Boucher etc. as big bonuses with their ability to contribute significantly with the bat as well as being proficient keepers.

[The Outsider]

Problem with England is that they have a serious tail and specially in the composition where Flintoff bats at 6 and they play 5 bowlers their batting has no depth at all.

[King]

I agree with Donny. A wicket keeper slot is a specialist one and should never be compromised as it can cost games. It also doesn't give the bowlers much confidence either. Imagine if Prior was to keep to Anil Kumble or Murali The old timers like Rod Marsh, Alan Knott, Ian Smith, Syed Kirmani were all capable batsmen that could chip in with some needful runs but their major focus was wicket keeping. Batting was something that was not a criterion those days but these days every team likes to have 7 batsmen in their ranks. Dhoni has done a wonderful job in my books. I can't fault him for the number of byes as we all know how wide at times the bowlers bowled. Dhoni had no chance whatsoever. I've said many times and say it again Dhoni is one of the better keepers in recent times. He's pretty safe behind stumps and just because he's equally good with the bat you can't term him as a bad keeper. Dhoni has done good job both at home and overseas keeping to the likes of Kumble and Bhajji. It's quite a bonus to have Karthik in the side too. He isn't too bad a keeper either.

[Donny]

Problem with England is that they have a serious tail

Serious tail. :regular_smile: One Indian fan in this forum, when commenting on India's first day score of 4/316, expressed the importance of SRT and VVS continuing on because there was only Dhoni and 4 easy wickets after them. Those 5 batsmen scored 259 more runs with the '4 easy wickets' contributing 167 of them. If England would stop their ridiculous dalliance with Flintoff at #6 (Test average in the low 30s), their tail would be quite respectable. FF would bat at 7 or 8 and others like Sidebottom, Hoggard, Tremlett and Plunkett are quite competent.

[sm332]

hit it on the nail Donny ... the hype around GG is incredible considering he has been a competent batsman for barely a handful of series

[The Outsider]

Those 5 batsmen scored 259 more runs with the '4 easy wickets' contributing 167 of them.

Anil Kumble won't be considered a tail ender by anyone even before this performance but the names you listed for England are no better than the Indian 9,10 and 11. If England don't play Flintoff at 6 they can't play 5 bowlers, something they really want to do.

[Cricketics]

what happend to paul nixon..?? i thought he was a better bat then this matt chakka prior?? may be age factor killed his enterance to english test side

[Chandan]

hit it on the nail Donny ... the hype around GG is incredible considering he has been a competent batsman for barely a handful of series

Who is GG Sameer? And Ian Chappell bored us to death right through the series by crticising Prior, his footwork or lack of it, his diving, catching etc etc... so much so that at one stage we were saying "Isko to Keeper-o-mania ho gaya hai' !! So I won't read the article. But I'm happy with Dhoni's keeping.

[bigdhoni7]

karma is a funny thing. :haha: