Alec Stewart - Career

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 Michael 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.