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Alec James Stewart OBE (born 8 April 1963 in Merton Park, Greater London) 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.^[1] 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.^[2]

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 Michael Atherton was chosen to succeed him. Stewart was vice-captain of the England side during most of Atherton's tenure as captain, eventually succeeding him in 1998. 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.^[3] 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.^[4] 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.^[5] 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.

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.^[6]

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.^[7]

In 2009, Stewart rejoined Surrey as a member of the coaching staff specialising in batting, wicket keeping and mentoring.^[8]

Honours

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

Trivia

Alec Stewart's career performance graph.

• Stewart has been victim to Shane Warne for three of Warne's landmarks, his 150th, 250th and 400th wickets. He is also the legspinner's most frequent victim, having been dismissed by Warne 14 times during his career.

• England and Surrey batsman Mark Butcher was married to Alec Stewart's sister Judy.[2]

• Stewart had less body fat than an average supermodel.^[9]

References

1. ^ "Alec was aggressive - He'd even sledge the teachers Says the England captain's Games Master!", Sunday Mirror, Steve Whiting, 24 May 1998
2. ^ Wisden: West Indies v England, 1993-94
3. ^ Stewart concedes defeat after another pitch invasion
4. ^ Cricinfo statsguru: batsmen who scored 8000 Test runs or more
5. ^ Cricinfo statsguru: openers by batting average since 1945
6. ^ Profile at Arundel Promotions
7. ^ http://www.athletes1.co.uk/content/169/index.html
8. ^ [1]
9. ^ BBC Sport Academy | Cricket | Features | Alec Stewart the model pro!

External links

• Alec Stewart's Greatest One-Day XI
• Player Profile: Alec Stewart from Cricinfo
• Alec Stewart at Cricket Archive

Alec Stewart at the Cricket World Cup
England squad – 1992 Cricket World Cup (runners-up) 1 Gooch (c) • 2 Botham • 3 DeFreitas • 4 Fairbrother • 5 Hick • 6 Illingworth • 7 Lamb • 8 Lewis • 9 Pringle • 10 Reeve • 11 Small • 12 Smith • 13 Stewart (wk) • 14 Tufnell
England squad – 1996 Cricket World Cup 1 Atherton (c) • 2 Cork • 3 DeFreitas • 4 Fairbrother • 5 Gough • 6 Hick • 7 Martin • 8 Illingworth • 9 Russell (wk) • 10 NMK Smith • 11 RA Smith • 12 Stewart • 13 Thorpe • 14 White
England squad – 1999 Cricket World Cup 1 Stewart (c/wk) • 2 Austin • 3 Croft • 4 Ealham • 5 Fairbrother • 6 Flintoff • 7 Fraser • 8 Gough • 9 Hick • 10 Hollioake • 11 Hussain • 12 Knight • 13 Mullally • 14 Thorpe • 15 Wells • Coach: Lloyd
England squad – 2003 Cricket World Cup 1 Knight · 2 Caddick · 3 Hussain · 4 Stewart · 5 Collingwood · 6 White · 11 Flintoff · 15 Irani · 22 Hoggard · 23 Trescothick · 28 Harmison · 29 Giles · 37 Blackwell · 40 Anderson · 99 Vaughan · Coach: Fletcher