Chris Adams surprised by Kevin Pietersen's criticism of Matt Prior

Matt Prior and Kevin Pietersen run in a match against New Zealand.

In the recently released book ‘KP: The Autobiography’, former English cricketer Kevin Pietersen has used some harsh words aimed at his former teammate Matt Prior, who has already stated that he will reply when the time is right.

But Chris Adams, Prior’s former county captain at Sussex and Pietersen’s former coach at Surrey, finds both players to be alike, having the same attitude and approach to the game. According to the former English batsman, the cricketers had more in common than they both acknowledge it to be.

Pietersen and Prior are similar

Adams told Standard Sport: “While there are some differences between them, they are far from dissimilar in terms of certain character traits. Both grew up in South Africa and there is a strong element of the South African attitude to cricket in both of them.

“For Matt, it was about winning first, with his personal contribution a very close second. If you divided his priorities, maybe the team had 50.25 per cent and his own performance 49.75 per cent. That’s how the balance was.

“Maybe with Kevin, it was just the other way around. From captaining him, I remember Matt as a talented, brave and intense cricketer. He would demand very high standards of himself and the team and he would be disappointed when those were not met.

“He was a very important man in a successful Sussex side, a key component in the dressing room.”

The criticism levelled at Prior was unexpected because the former Test wicketkeeper was the one who called Pietersen up after he was dropped following his role in the ‘text-gate’ scandal in 2012. KP was accused of sending messages ridiculing then-captain Andrew Strauss to the South African team.

Attitude same but different personalities

Even though, both cricketers have a similar attitude when playing the game, they approached life quite differently when away from the field, according to Adams.

“They were both attacking players but when you’re talking about personality types, KP was much more of an introvert, and Matt an extrovert.

“Matt wanted to get out and about, interact with team-mates and enjoy spending time with them, whereas KP was a bit more of a loner. It’s KP’s right to say what he feels in the book and I wouldn’t criticise either of them. But I would say that until now, nobody has said he is right about Matt. Matt is a good lad and he will have friends in the game long after he retires,” the 44-year-old added.