Matt Prior: Leading On And Off The Field

Former England cricketer and now CEO of ONE Pro Cycling, Matt Prior, joined industry leaders from the world of sport including organisations such as NIKE, The FA, ESL Gaming, Formula One, RFU and more at Sport Industry Private Dining Club hosted by Integro Entertainment & Sport at M restaurant, Victoria Street.

Prior won 79 Test caps and helped England to three Ashes series victories between 2009 and 2013. An Achilles injury forced Prior to retire from the game prematurely, and he has subsequently gone on to build ONE Pro Cycling which became the first British cycling team to progress to Professional Continental level in 2016.

Before discussing the transition from elite sportsman to businessman there were questions around the responsibilities of athletes in the current climate. Prior noted that “the game of cricket has changed significantly, and it is moving more to the way we see football today. With the IPL and the amount of money some of the top players are earning, the responsibility that comes with that grows.”

When asked about the #takeaknee campaign and an athlete’s ability to lead social change, Prior paid tribute to Andy Flower who “wanted us to be better people. It wasn’t all about being the best wicketkeeper, but also about how we can be better people and look after each other. This culture was based on the fundamentals of the upmost professionalism, hard work and integrity. This was all led by a man in Andy Flower who stood up to Robert Mugabe. This for us was much more powerful than how many Ashes wins or how many test hundreds have you scored.”

Prior acknowledged the difficulty for athletes coming to the end of their playing career; however, he had other options available to him before co-founding ONE Pro Cycling. “When you are in the middle of your career you feel invincible and you don’t want to think about retirement. However, in cricket the PCA do a great job to put systems in place to enable cricketers to look beyond their playing career. All the infrastructure was there for me, I had Sky and coaching all lined up, but that was just not what I wanted.”

Prior had used cycling as a major part of his rehab from an Achilles injury and as he got into the sport he saw a huge business opportunity.

“The growth is global and there has been a significant demographic shift – it is no longer the working man’s sport in Europe – everyone is putting down the golf clubs and getting on £10,000 bikes. Everyone in cycling is so engrossed in that world, and have been for a number of years, that they are not willing to change. The opportunity is there for a challenger brand to come in and change the status quo. The idea was to build a brand – the ONE Pro Group – and grow from there. For instance we will be releasing a sports nutrition brand which will be the first additional revenue stream since we launched.

Speaking about his first experience in the boardroom Prior said: “I will never forget that first meeting where they explored raising sponsorship, which I had no idea about. After an hour long meeting I walked out of the boardroom and knew that I felt more comfortable in that environment then I ever did playing cricket for England.”

The invitation-only members club meets four times a year at some of the best venues in London, providing top level representatives from across the sport industry with the opportunity to network and socialise in an informal and relaxed setting. To find out more about the Sport Industry Private Dining Club hosted by Integro Entertainment & Sport, please contact Alex Coulson, executive director, Sport Industry Group, at alex.coulson@benchmarksport.com.