July 25 Thursday 2002
Old-fashioned air lingers around Stewart 

LONDON: Something of an admirably old-fashioned air lingers around Alec Stewart, otherwise the most modern of cricketers. 

He is unashamedly patriotic, unable to understand why the national anthem is not played before Test matches. His kit is always immaculate and, into his 40th year, his hair remains short whatever the prevailing fashion. 

As befits an international cricketer at the dawn of the 21st century, Stewart is dedicated to physical fitness and has embraced both the five-day and one-day forms of the game with equal facility. 

Yet his values are rooted in the old English game when social circumstances dictated that the professionals performed their allotted roles and kept their complaints to themselves. 

A plausible case can be argued that Stewart's dedication to team rather than self has deprived England of a truly great opening batsman. In that role Stewart averages around 47, including unforgettable centuries in each innings in Barbados against Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh at the height of their powers. 

As it is he averages just a shade under 40, the accepted benchmark for top-quality Test batsman. In another scenario, Stewart could have been the all-rounder to replace Ian Botham during the 1990s if the selectors had stuck with him as a wicketkeeper-batsman. 

Instead, he was shunted throughout the order when the selectors decided they could afford to play a specialist wicketkeeper, usually Jack Russell who was rated in England, at least, as the superior custodian. When he was given the gloves, his batting position depended on team selection. 

Four years ago, Stewart was named England captain after Michael Atherton decided he had had enough. He led England to a series win over South Africa before his side capitulated in Australia after a spirited fight. 

A dismal World Cup campaign at home the following year ensued and Stewart was out of a job. Throughout the troughs, Stewart fought on, doing his duty as he saw it. 

His England career seemed in jeopardy when he opted out of the English winter tour of India and New Zealand this year to undergo operations on both elbows. James Foster proved a promising if unfinished replacement before an early season injury this year gave Stewart a reprieve. 

Appropriately for a wicketkeeper, he seized it with both hands. He scored his 15th Test century during the 2-0 series win over Sri Lanka and kept wicket with the facility of a 20-year-old. 

During the triangular one-day series with India and Sri Lanka, Stewart demonstrated a quite astonishing ability to reinvent himself. Formerly somewhat one-dimensional in the one-day game, he showed, after consultation with England's canny Zimbabwe-born coach Duncan Fletcher, that he could improvise with the best. 

Behind the stumps he was a revelation. Rejuvenated by his winter's rest he stood up to the brisk medium pace of Ronnie Irani and accepted chances Alan Knott or Godfrey Evans would have been proud to snaffle. 

Stewart plays his cricket at the Oval, south of the river Thames where he has given Surrey yeoman service. And showing a fine disregard for transpontine rivalries, he has often reserved his best for Lord's. 

Only five wicketkeepers have recorded five or more dismissals in an innings in a Test at Lord's. Stewart is the solitary player to reach that landmark twice. As well he is on the Lord's honour board three times for scoring a Test century at cricket's headquarters. 

Generous applause will greet Stewart this week, whether he trots briskly on to the field with wicketkeepers' gloves and pads, or walks down the Pavilion steps with bat in right hand. He will deserve every moment.