McCullum's advice aids Prior's game

Loughborough: England's wicketkeeper-batsman Matt Prior revealed on Tuesday how a few words of advice over a game of golf from rival keeper Brendon McCullum improved and revitalised his game.

Prior, 28, remains England's first-choice keeper in test cricket and was to play against Pakistan yesterday.

However, this year he lost his place in the 50-over and Twenty20 teams to Craig Kieswetter, which seemed to have a negative impact on his normally aggressive batting.

A successful Twenty20 cup in domestic cricket with Sussex in which he scored 443 runs, including an innings of 117, has perked up his game and confidence and he paid tribute to New Zealand's batsman-keeper who was a team mate.

Prior's anxieties stemming from his England woes meant he abandoned his natural instinctive game and stopped enjoying his batting. McCullum urged him to back his technique and to "free his mind".

Helpful

"It was helpful that he likes golf because we tried to spend as much time on the golf course as possible," Prior told reporters at England's training base in Loughborough. "While we played we chatted about our game, about keeping, batting, about putting the two together.