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The ideal goals would include a third successive County Championship title by the sea and their man behind the stumps back in the England squad for the winter. Neither will be achieved easily.

Robinson says: "Your first instinct is you are gutted for the individual, he's one of our own, he's come through the ranks. Your first impulse is to hurt for the person. As the dust settles you realise from a selfish point of view it's fantastic because we have a very good player back and also we get another leader.

"Matty has natural leadership qualities and he helps coach within the team and, alongside other senior players here, he can help with the younger players."

Prior himself appears at ease with his situation and says he has never felt anger towards anyone after being left out of the squad. The whole experience appears to have done the 25-year-old no harm at all - in fact, it could be the opposite.

He told me: "You can't go blaming this person and that because the responsibility lies on your shoulders. Right now, if I'm being really honest, I'm enjoying being out of the frantic international spotlight."

Last week was Matt's first in England for the last seven years and thank goodness he remembered to do the right things on 14 February. What appear little things to most people can be very important to those who are used to be being away for weeks and months on end.

He's keen to make sure that he doesn't send out a wrong message that his ambitions are at an end, but age can sometimes bring a little wisdom with it.

"I'm not saying that I would rather be here for one minute. Obviously playing for England is the ultimate. Every time you walk out with an England shirt on it's an absolute honour and I'm working my hardest to get back into the team," he said.

"What's important to me also is the support I've had from Sussex from the coach, chief executive and the players who all have been great to me in what potentially could been a tricky stage of my career."

Whilst Prior strikes me as being comfortable with his position right now, some things clearly rankle with him.

He talks of "character assassination'" in the media, most of which began with . At times he thought it unfair. What was written and spoken about him was incorrect according to the man himself.

He even claims to have disliked the character portrayed in the media himself to such an extent that he called on his nearest and dearest to tell him he wasn't the person some people believed him to be.

He's adamant he had nothing to do with the 'jellybean' incident and, he says, he was "thrown in the deep end a bit" when he had to do the press conference at a time when "people were looking for someone to point a finger at".

Stronger and wiser are almost watchwords for the player now.

"Certainly with the bat in Sri Lanka I felt I had made huge strides forward and some of the innings I don't think many people thought I could play - in a sort of attritional way. I showed another side to my game.

"The rewards are fantastic when you do well and to do well for England is the best feeling ever, but to do well for Sussex can be just as good. There is no reason why my game should stop going forward just because I'm not playing for England. My standards won't drop at all."

His mentor Alec Stewart is doing what he can to get Matt back in an England shirt, doing some technical work with him, but it's much more than that according to Prior.

"What I want to improve on is my consistency. I can have five great weeks as I did in Sri Lanka, but then a couple of bad days back to back - and that’s the thing you can't afford to at international level."

He also is realising that at times he can go for catches that are not his for the taking, as was probably the case in Galle. As he points out "the ball hit me on the end of the fingertips and it's hard to juggle a ball travelling at 85 mph on the end of your fingertips. It's a matter of judgement."

In fact you can add 'judgement' to his list of watchwords. Prior has more than just the ball to juggle with over the next twelve months. He has to work out how much of his competitive nature he wants to show.

Robinson is convinced that Prior will come back bigger and stronger, and in doing so in the short term, Sussex will gain.

And as for defending the title, it's no change. He tells me: "We keep our targets small and try and win each game.

"We have a bigger squad but we have lost three key players from last year in , Richard Montgomerie and . So we have to compensate for that.

"As ever, when one person goes, it opens up the door to someone else to step in to take the opportunity and grow. That is the type of thing you are always trying to create."