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Alec James Stewart (born 8 April 1963) is an English former cricketer, and former captain of the England cricket team, who played Test cricket and One Day Internationals as a right-handed wicket-keeper-batsman. He is the fifth-most-capped English cricketer ever in Test cricket Retrieved on 3 September 2011 and third-most-capped in One Day Internationals (ODIs), having played in 133 Tests and 170 ODIs. An attacking batsman in tests against the new ball, Stewart is regarded as one of England's greatest openers. Pakistani fast bowler Wasim Akram considers him one of the most difficult batsmen he ever bowled to. He was a part of the English squad which finished as runners-up at the 1992 Cricket World Cup.
Stewart is a well-known supporter of Surrey County Cricket Club and Chelsea Football Club. 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.
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.
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. Cricinfo statsguru: batsmen who scored 8000 Test runs or more However, when played as a specialist batsman in Test cricket, Stewart averaged 46.90 in 51 games with 9 centuries. Since World War II, only Len Hutton, Geoff Boycott, Dennis Amiss and Alastair Cook have bettered Stewart's average of 46 as a specialist opening batsman for England. Cricinfo statsguru: openers by batting average since 1945 As wicketkeeper-batsman he averaged 34.92 from 82 tests, higher than many of his contemporaries. He was on the losing side in a record 54 Test Matches.
Stewart holds the record for scoring the most test runs without a career double century in test history (8463).
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 dropped down the order and did not open the batting. 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. Stewart concedes defeat after another pitch invasion 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 also set a record for playing the most number of ODI matches(28) as a captain who has kept wicket and opened the batting.
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 County Cricket Club 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 was found. In October 2013 the club announced that Graham Ford would become head coach in February 2014, with Stewart becoming Director of Cricket, a new position. "Graham Ford Appointed Head Coach" Retrieved 18 October 2013 In March 2024, he announced that he would be stepping down from this role at the end of the year. In October 2024 it was announced that Stewart would remain at the club as a part-time high-performance cricket advisor.
He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 2003 when he was surprised by Michael Aspel while playing golf at the Royal Automobile Club in Epsom.
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