England lose out as Alec Stewart opts to stay at Surrey

Stewart helped guide to Surrey to a second county championship title since 2015 this summer

Alec Stewart has withdrawn from the running to be England’s national selector, opting to remain director of cricket at county champions, Surrey. 

England’s managing director of cricket Rob Key chose to reintroduce the role of national selector, with applications closing last month. Stewart, with his firm grounding in the county game, was understood to be the preferred candidate for the role but he withdrew this weekend. 

Stewart won his second title as Surrey director of cricket this year, and spent the summer pulling together a permanent coaching team led by former captain Gareth Batty. As well as the sense that Surrey are at the start of something that he would like to be involved in, Stewart has specific family circumstances that make extensive travel difficult.

This is not the first time Stewart, who played 133 Tests, has withdrawn from the running for jobs at the ECB. Earlier this year, he pulled out of the race for Key’s job, director of cricket, for family reasons. In 2019, he was strongly considered for the role of head coach, which went to Chris Silverwood (but is now shared between Matthew Mott and Brendon McCullum.