Surrey and England legend Alec Stewart is to return to the Brit Oval dressing room after agreeing to join the Club’s Cricket Management Team.
Stewart, who retired from all cricket six years ago, played 587 times for Surrey during a playing career that lasted from 1981 to 2003, scoring 24,683 runs and taking 665 catches. He also represented his country 367 times, scoring a further 16,269 runs and taking 499 catches.
Since his retirement he has maintained his involvement with the Club, taking on an ambassadorial role alongside running a highly successful sports management company overseeing the careers of a number of England stars as well as keeping up regular media commitments.
Until now, Stewart has resisted all calls for him to return to the Surrey dressing room but with the Club under the new leadership of Professional Cricket Manager Chris Adams, he feels it is the right moment to come back.
His arrival as a coach specialising in batting, wicket keeping and mentoring in is a further boost to the Club after the return of Graham Thorpe as a specialist batting coach in November last year and the recent news that star batsman Mark Ramprakash has signed on at Surrey until 2011.
“I have been a Surrey man all my life and am relishing the opportunity to get back involved in a cricketing role at the Club” said Stewart this week. “We have some bright young talent on the staff and I hope I can help them wring out every drop of their ability to secure success for both Surrey and England over years to come.”
Stewart’s new role at Surrey, which he will perform part time in addition to his ongoing ambassadorial duties and business commitments, will focus on three key areas – coaching, mentoring and consultancy.
On a coaching level, he will work with batsmen and wicket keepers at all levels of the Club, complementing the day to day training undertaken with batting coach Graham Thorpe. He will also act as a mentor for Surrey’s young players, utilising his experience and expertise in all areas of the game to help shape their careers, both on and off the field.
The final element of Stewart’s new role will be to act as a free ranging consultant to key members of the Club’s cricket staff including Professional Cricket Manager Chris Adams and Managing Director of Cricket Gus Mackay.
Speaking this week, Chris Adams said: “A true great such as Alec Stewart should always be involved at his Club and I could not be happier to welcome him onto our coaching staff.
“I saw Alec do some coaching when I was Sussex last year and getting him involved in the first-team setup was one of my key goals when I started at Surrey. He is still a model professional and utterly exemplifies the excellence I want my players to aspire to.
“With true greats such as Graham Thorpe and Alec Stewart back in our dressing room, I am confident that we will see success return to Surrey in the coming years.”
Gus Mackay, the Club’s Managing Director of Cricket added: “The return of Alec Stewart to Surrey is as clear a statement of intent as you can get about the direction the Club is travelling in. Under the powerful leadership of Chris Adams, I am confident that our cricket management team will be able to bring sustained success to Surrey and develop a legacy that will see the Club prosper long into the future.”
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