Moores gave me coaching when I was 12. I was hooked, says Prior

Little did he know that he was about to experience 90 minutes that would shape his destiny.

"I was playing for Sussex Under 13s," recalled Matt Prior, "and the wicketkeeper was late, got stuck in traffic or something. I piped up 'I'll have a go' and after the game the coach said to my dad 'Matt looks a natural at catching the ball. He should be behind the stumps'. So they sent me to have a session with the Sussex keeper."

His name was Peter Moores.

"I'll never forget that first session,' added Prior, who is still coming to terms with the spectacular start to his Test career.

"It's always stuck in my mind. You got booked in for an hour with a pro but after my time was up I didn't want to stop. So we just carried on. I'm sure most players just did their hour and said 'Thanks son, see you later' but Mooresy was happy to continue. I walked out of the indoor centre that day and said 'Right, I want to be a keeper'. I was hooked."

Fast forward to the aftermath of the nightmare Ashes tour earlier this year and England are in the market for a new keeper. I visited the then academy director at Loughborough and asked him who he would pick if it was down to him.

"There are a lot of good ones about," said that same Peter Moores. "I've got a view but I'm not a selector, so it's not up to me!"

It soon was and he chose that little lad who had so enthused him 13 years earlier. When Moores became England coach a few weeks after our meeting, everyone assumed he would pick the man who went on from that initial meeting in 1994 to become his protege at Sussex. I am pretty sure Moores was thinking of Prior when he told me I've got a view.' Prior, though, was not so sure.

"That's the thing," said Prior. "Everybody immediately said 'Peter Moores is England coach, Matt Prior will be happy'. But I thought 'Hang on, think about the politics here'. Pete might have thought 'This looks a bit dodgy, I'd better get someone else in'.

"My hopes of selection were always going to be down to performance.

I know Pete's not interested in favouritism. He's interested in who can come in and do a job for him and win games for England. I knew I had to bat and keep well if I was to get in and, thankfully, I did that in front of Pete on the A tour of Bangladesh last winter."

Prior's first Test, when it came against West Indies at Lord's, was the stuff of dreams as he became the first England keeper to score a century on debut. But it is a moot point as to whether he would have been the man to fill the gloves vacated at Test level by Chris Read and Geraint Jones had Moores not been promoted.

After all, Prior toured Pakistan and India the winter after England won the Ashes and, after first playing in Zimbabwe a year earlier, made 12 one-day international appearances in total — 11 as a specialist batsman — without making an impact. It was said his face did not fit with Duncan Fletcher.

People made assumptions, saw things that didn't add up and came to the conclusion that Fletcher didn't like the way I played,' said Prior. But I was never told that and never thought that. I clearly was missing something that the management were looking for and it was up to me to take responsibility and go and get that thing.

So, what was wrong with his game? Firstly, I was an opening batsman who averaged 20 so I had to do better than that. There were times when I lost a bit of self-belief. Had I messed my opportunity up? That's when I was faced with a choice. Was I going to carry on in county cricket or start to back myself again by working harder.'

He chose the latter, identifying what he believes was the problem.

When I first played for England I was quite dependent on a coach, someone telling me if I was playing well and whether my bat was coming down straight or not. That's the relationship I had with Peter Moores at Sussex and I'd had that since I was 12. I've now learned that I don't need a coach, except for little things here and there. I know when I'm not hitting the ball well and what I need to do when I'm not. My strategies for dealing with the bad days are far superior now. I think of how I'm going to score against particular bowlers, what areas are dangerous and what are the best in which to score, percentage-wise.'

Prior was born and raised in Sandton, an affluent suburb of Johannesburg, by his South African mother and English father and has something of the hard-bitten Springbok about his on-field demeanour. Off it, he is charm personified with an accent that is more home counties than high veldt.

My parents made the decision to come to Brighton when I was 11 because they decided South Africa was too dangerous a place to live,' said Prior. Thank goodness they did. I lost my accent pretty quickly.

When you're 11 you want to fit in and make new friends and when I got here I just wanted to be English. I wanted the accent. I wanted to be accepted. I was a massive football fan and thought of England as this dream place. This is where Manchester United and Liverpool were! This is where they made Umbro football boots!'

A sports scholarship to Brighton College was achieved, Prior met Moores and the rest, as they say. . .

Except that Prior had to shake off an image, garnered during his combative days with Sussex, as a bit of a boorish South African.

It's been well documented that I'm cocky, confident or whatever on the pitch, which is fine and I do enjoy a challenge,' he added. But I've matured with experience. I didn't really understand this word experience''. Now I do.'

There has been one other key figure in his development. The one he resembles when he plays. Think back to the pull shot with which Prior reached his half-century at Lord's and it could easily have been played by England's greatest batsman-wicketkeeper — Alec Stewart.

I watched Stewie when I was young and sub-consciously picked up certain little traits and mannerisms of his. I didn't realise it until somebody said to me Alec Stewart looked a little bit like that''. Alec has been brilliant to me.

To have him on the end of a phone has been great for me.'

So much so that Stewart, together with former Crystal Palace football manager Alan Smith, manages Prior's career with Arundel Promotions.

Kevin Pietersen, who shares Prior's background, said last week: We've been looking a long time for our Adam Gilchrist. We may have found him.'

If Prior can achieve half of what Gilchrist has done, or indeed Stewart, England will have solved a problem they have had ever since The Gaffer' retired.