Alec Stewart

For the Scottish association football player, see Alec Stewart (footballer).

Alec Stewart

Personal information
Full name	Alec James Stewart
Born	(1963-04-08) 8 April 1963 Merton Park, England
Nickname	The Gaffer
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Batting style	Right-handed
Bowling style	Occasional right-arm medium
Role	Wicket-keeper
Relations	MJ Stewart (father)
International information
National side	England
Test debut (cap 543)	24 February 1990 v West Indies
Last Test	8 September 2003 v South Africa
ODI debut (cap 104)	15 October 1989 v Sri Lanka
Last ODI	2 March 2003 v Australia
ODI shirt no.	4
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1981–2003	Surrey
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC LA Matches 133 170 447 504 Runs scored 8463 4677 26165 14771 Batting average 39.54 31.60 40.06 35.08 100s/50s 15/45 4/28 48/148 19/94 Top score 190 116 271* 167* Balls bowled 20 0 502 4 Wickets 0 – 3 0 Bowling average – – 148.66 – 5 wickets in innings – – 0 – 10 wickets in match – n/a 0 n/a Best bowling – – 1/7 – Catches/stumpings 263/14 159/15 721/32 442/48
Source: Cricinfo, 14 October 2007

Alec James Stewart OBE (born 8 April 1963) is a retired English cricketer, a right-handed batsman-wicketkeeper and former captain of the England cricket team. He is the most capped English cricketer of all time in Test matches and 2nd most capped in One Day Internationals, having played in 133 Tests and 170 ODIs.

Career

The younger son of former English Test cricketer Micky Stewart, Stewart was educated at Tiffin School in Kingston upon Thames. He made his début for Surrey in 1981, earning a reputation as an aggressive opening batsman and occasional wicketkeeper. He made his England début in the first Test of the 1989/90 tour of the West Indies, along with Nasser Hussain, who would eventually replace him as England captain.

At the start of his career, Stewart was a specialist opening batsman for England, with wicketkeeping duties being retained by Jack Russell, who was generally recognised as the superior gloveman and who batted down the order. However, Russell, the inferior batsman, would often be dropped to improve the balance of the side (i.e. to accommodate an extra bowler or batsman), in which case Stewart would don the gloves. After enduring years of selection and deselection, Russell retired from international cricket in 1998, leaving Stewart unrivalled as England's keeper-batsman until his own retirement in 2003.

His highest Test score, 190, was against Pakistan in the drawn first Edgbaston Test on 4 June 1992; it was his fourth century in five Tests. In 1994 at the Kensington Oval he became only the seventh Englishman to score centuries in both innings of a Test match, scoring 118 and 143 as the West Indies were beaten at their Bridgetown "fortress" for the first time since 1935.

Stewart was groomed for the England captaincy under Graham Gooch, deputising for him in four tests in India and Sri Lanka in 1993, but when Gooch retired from the captaincy later that year Mike Atherton was chosen to succeed him.

Always more of an establishment figure than any sort of rebel, it was no surprise when Stewart was asked to captain England in 1998 when Mike Atherton resigned. Despite being the age of 35 at the time, Stewart's level of fitness was impeccable, especially bearing in mind that most players do not continue beyond 37. As it was Stewart went on to play for England beyond his 40th birthday – but as events were to transpire – his captaincy of England barely lasted 12 months.

In his first series as captain, against South Africa, Stewart scored an outstanding 164 in the third Test at Old Trafford to salvage a draw, a result which eventually enabled England to overturn a 1–0 deficit to win the series 2–1. Nonetheless, failures against Australia and in the 1999 cricket World Cup saw him sacked from the captaincy to be replaced by Hussain. During his captaincy, he had the unusual distinction of simultaneously captaining the side, opening the batting and keeping wicket. He continued to deputise occasionally as captain of England's one-day side, and became the second international captain to concede a match in 2001, after a pitch invasion during a One Day International against Pakistan rendered the continuation of play impossible. He continued as an England player for five more seasons, and became only the fourth player to score a century in his 100th Test, scoring 105 against the West Indies at Old Trafford in 2000.

Stewart's batting average (39.54) is the lowest of any player to have scored 8000 or more runs in Test cricket: he is the only player to have scored over 8000 runs despite an average of under 40. However, this still represents a fine return given he had the burden of keeping wicket in 82 of his 133 Test matches. As a specialist batsman in Test cricket, Stewart averaged an impressive 46.90 in 51 games with 9 centuries. Since World War II, only Len Hutton, Geoff Boycott and Dennis Amiss have bettered Stewart's average of 46 as a specialist opening batsman. As wicketkeeper-batsman he averaged 34.92 from 82 tests, higher than many of his contemporaries and many of the current batch of international wicketkeepers. He was unlucky enough to be on the losing side in a record 54 Test Matches.

Alec Stewart was probably the best example of England's "unique" selection policies throughout his international career. He was a superb player of fast bowling – probably the best in the country – but was nowhere near as fluent against spin – particularly early on in an innings. As a keeper, he was very good but there were better glove men around during his time – notably Jack Russell, Steve Rhodes and Chris Read. Therefore it was no surprise that in the early 1990s England used him correctly as an opening batsman who did not keep wicket. When England were short of runs from their wicket keeper, the selectors gave the gloves to Stewart and moved him down the order to number 6 – a policy that often backfired as Stewart was forced to start an innings against spin. Against top class spinners like Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill he struggled – not scoring a century against Australia until his 5th Ashes campaign. Had England let Stewart opening the batting (a position Stewart himself expressed a preference for – though at the same time said he would bat anywhere for England) and played a specialist wicket keeper who could bat at 7 – England may have fared better. The continual movement of Stewart up and down the order keeping and not keeping arguably did not allow England to reap full reward from Stewart's proven ability against fast bowling. Gary Sobers once said that "Alec Stewart is your best player against real quicks because he is the only one who gets back and across" ("Captain Calypso", BBC TV, May 1994)

Stewart is a well-known supporter of Surrey County Cricket Club and Chelsea F.C. When shirt numbers were introduced for One Day International cricket, Stewart chose the number 4 shirt in honour of his favourite Chelsea player when growing up, John Hollins, and kept that shirt number throughout his career.

Post-playing career

In 2004, Stewart became a founding director of Arundel Promotions with specific responsibility for player management and representation. Cricket playing clients include Paul Collingwood, Ian Bell, Ashley Giles and Matt Prior.

In 2009, Stewart rejoined Surrey as a part time consultant to the coaching staff specialising in batting, wicket keeping and mentoring.

Since retiring from playing Stewart has taken on the role as the Club Ambassador for Surrey CCC and was made an executive director in 2011.

On 17 June 2013 it was announced by Surrey County Cricket Club that Stewart would take charge of first team affairs following the sacking of Chris Adams, until a long term successor is found.

Honours

• Wisden Cricketer of the Year 1993
• Awarded the MBE on 13 June 1998
• Awarded the OBE on 14 June 2003

Alec Stewart's career performance graph.

• Highest Test run scorer in the world during the 1990s

• As a mark of his achievements Surrey CCC have named the gates at the Vauxhall End after him: the Alec Stewart Gates

External links

• Alec Stewart's Greatest One-Day XI
• Player profile: Alec Stewart from ESPNcricinfo
• Alec Stewart at Cricket Archive
• Alec Stewart on Twitter

Sporting positions
Preceded by Graham Gooch Mike Atherton	English national cricket captain (deputised 1993) 1998–1999	Succeeded by Graham Gooch Nasser Hussain
Preceded by Ian Greig	Surrey captain 1992–1997	Succeeded by Adam Hollioake

Alec Stewart at the Cricket World Cup