Prior fires up team for Test of strength

The tourists had gone into the final day with real hopes of victory only to be undone by a brilliant undefeated century from Sachin Tendulkar.

"To play five days of intense cricket and then to come out on the wrong side of it is hugely deflating," said the wicketkeeper, who marked his return to Test cricket by scoring 86 runs, including an unbeaten half-century.

"It was a pretty quiet changing room at the end of the game but there were a huge number of positives to come out of the match. We wanted to win, obviously, but we come here very confident as a unit that we can level the series."

To do that, England must win the final Test, starting here on Friday, against an Indian team who are likely to be even stronger after getting out of jail in Chennai. They needed 387 on a wearing pitch - and reached their target with six wickets to spare, achieving the fourth highest successful run chase in Test history.

"We had put ourselves in a really good position, and when you are going for the win you have the excitement that you can do it," said Prior. "When you don't come out on the right side it's almost doubly disappointing. But the games come thick and fast so you dust yourselves down and crack on."

There has been plenty of attention since the First Test on Monty Panesar's failure to bowl England to victory. Their No1 spinner did not take a wicket in the fourth innings when he should have the visitors' main threat.

"I think Monty will admit he can probably bowl better, but he was bowling at some fantastic players of spin," said Prior. "Monty is still learning his trade and we have no doubt what a fantastic bowler he is, and we support him wholeheartedly. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before he wins those games for England, like he has before."

As for Tendulkar's contribution, Prior had no doubt he was watching a master at work. The Sussex player admitted: "I probably shouldn't say this but as a keeper you get the privilege to stand behind some fairly awesome players. Sometimes you have to take your hat of and say 'gee, he played fantastically well', and you almost enjoy the experience of him playing like he did."

As England practised here, their bosses stressed they were "unaware" of suggestions that Texan billionaire Sir Allen Stanford is set to pull the plug on his multi-million pound involvement in cricket.

According to reports, Stanford has disbanded his 'Board of Legends' - including former West Indies captains Viv Richards and Courtney Walsh - and closed down his domestic Twenty20 competition in the Caribbean.

But the huge concern for the ECB will be the clear implication that the American businessman will now cancel the $20million annual match between England and the Stanford Superstars, scrap plans to bankroll a four-team international tournament at Lord's and lose interest in becoming financially involved with the England Premier League when it is launched in 2010.

That would be another blow for England, who yesterday learned that Vodafone will end their sponsorship of the national team in early 2010.

The reason for Stanford's dramatic about-turn is said to be financial - including a failure to break into the American TV market - rather than disenchantment as a result of the negative publicity that dogged England's recent big-money clash in Antigua

"We are unaware of these alleged developments," said an ECB spokesman here today, pointing out that time differences between India and America made communications awkward.

But ECB chairman Giles Clarke, who is here to watch this week's Second Test, will demand some quick answers after committing himself wholeheartedly to the Stanford project.

Kevin Pietersen's team were thrashed six weeks ago and walked away with nothing while the West Indian players shared $11m.

However, England's top one-day cricketers expected another chance next November.

"It's a huge opportunity to play in one of those games and a potentially life-changing opportunity," admitted Prior, who was on the losing side in Antigua. "But what will be will be. We're not in control of that. If it carries on fantastic, if not there will be other things."

While the players had to win to prosper, it is the potential loss to the English game in general which will alarm the top brass at Lord's.

If all the bad news is true, Clarke will face some serious questions from around the counties. He openly courted Stanford and welcomed his involvement in cricket, then defended the concept of the game in Antigua when there was widespread criticism following the American's showy performance in November.