Q&A: Alec Stewart

Alec Stewart is the most capped England player of all time with 133 appearances and is second on the country's all-time list of Test run-scorers.

A former Test captain he maintained a batting average of almost 40 despite also keeping wicket for the majority of his England appearances.

Stewart was born in Surrey in 1963 and was coached by his father, Micky, a former Surrey captain and England Test batsman.

Though a prolific run-maker in the County Championship for Surrey - he scored 1,000 runs a season for five years on the trot - he was passed over for England selection throughout the 1980s.

Stewart's first foray onto the Test stage - which he considers his most nervous moment in international cricket - came in Jamaica in 1990 against West Indies.

His authobiography Playing For Keeps, which was written with the aid of BBC cricket reporter Pat Murphy, is now available in paperback from BBC Books.

Alec Stewart was at the Oval on day one of the County Championship season to answer your questions with BBC Sport Online's Martin Gough.

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How do you rate England's chances this summer in both tests and ODIs? And how well do you think we will fare in the next World Cup?
Mark Carter, England

I'd expect us to beat the West Indies. We've shown good form against them and a lot of their players will lack a bit of experience in English conditions.

Against New Zealand I think it will be a good series, especially if Nathan Astle and Shane Bond are fit.

It will be a tight contest but because of the way we've played since Christmas I'd expect that momentum to carry on during the summer.

As far as the World Cup is concerned there are seven or eight players, fitness permitting, who are certs but it's a bit early to be talking about it now.

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Can Australia continue to dominate the Test scene for the next five years, if not, who will replace them as the best Test nation?
Monty, Wales

As an Englishman I want it to be England, obviously.

Australia are the best at the moment but India have played some excellent cricket in the last 18 months and England are making some big strides forward.

Obviously, Steve Waugh is not there anymore and I want to see how Australia cope when Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne are gone, but at the moment they are a level ahead of everyone else.

But five years is a long time and we can't say who will be the best then.

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Who do you think are England's current best players at the moment in both forms of the game?
Jay, UK

It's difficult to pick out individuals but Graham Thorpe has carried on where he left off before he went into self-exile and there's Michael Vaughan.

It's impossible to pick out your best players really when everyone, at times, has performed, and it's good they are not reliant on any one individual.

As long as three of the top five score heavily and the others chip in lower down, and then two out of the four bowlers perform well they will always have a chance of winning games.

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When you were first picked for England, Jack Russell was probably a better keeper than you but you scored more runs. Therefore, do you agree with Geraint Jones being selected ahead of Chris Read on this same basis?
Neil Hutchinson, England

I was playing purely as a batter and although Jack didn't do anything wrong he wasn't scoring heavily and it was affecting the balance of the team.

If you look around world cricket, the keeper more often than not bats at seven and has to chip in with the right number of runs.

When I saw Chris Read's glovework throughout the winter it's been top class, but he'll be the first to admit he's not got as many runs with the bat as he'd wanted.

The selectors have been able to make a decision from a position of strength with the side winning and Jones did a very good job and looked assured.

He's not the finished article with the gloves, but neither was I when I started keeping, and with the bat he looks like he could easily be a Test number six batsman.

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Godfrey Evans famously stood up to the stumps to Alec Bedser's fast-medium bowling: which modern fast-medium bowlers might a gloveman of that quality stand up to today and how much more effective would it make those bowlers? PS - Have you ever tried standing up to Martin Bicknell, and if so how did you find it?
Rachael De Tyne, England

It really depends on the wicket, if it's seaming or swinging a lot then there's no real reason to stand up to the stumps.

You get more nicks than stumpings and people say you should stand up no matter what, but I don't agree - you're not going to catch a thick-ish nick stood up, but stood back you are.

Alan Knott, who's coached me a lot, has said don't stand up for the sake of it because you won't get as many catches, but you've got to weigh it up and if you feel you can put real pressure on a batsman by standing up then do so.

I always stood up to Mark Ealham, who's of a lesser pace and got most of his wickets lbw or bowled, but in one-dayers you stand up more generally as you don't want the batsman going down the wicket.

Adam Hollioake is another good bowler to stand up to as he's got good variation, but Martin Bicknell is a big swinger of the ball and gets a lot of dismissals caught behind and in the slips so I'd always stand back.

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When you were practising when you were about 13 years old did you give the same amounts of time to batting and keeping?
Peter Mounstephen, Scotland

Well I didn't start keeping until I was 16, I was always a batter who didn't bowl.

I can't remember how it started, it might have been in a school game where I did alright, but I've kept wicket more for England than any other side I've played for.

Once you are a keeper it's important to devote time to it in order to progress and you've also got to be capable of scoring the right number of runs coming in at six or seven.

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Having read your book, it is quite obvious what a great help Geoff Boycott was to you in your career. Are you giving a similar helping hand to any of the test players at the moment? Especially the keepers?
Gareth Lanagan, Wales

Not at the moment, obviously I haven't been away on tour.

You never stop learning and if there are people you trust and if you believe their knowledge is correct then you talk to them, and Boycs was one of those for me.

I'd love to help players out and if people ask for advice I'll give it, that's part and parcel of being an ex-player.

But even if you're a current player you can take advice from each other, Michael Atherton and I knew each other's games inside out for example.

I also played a lot of cricket with Thorpey, Mark Butcher and Nasser Hussain and we'd all offer tips if we thought it was necessary.

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Why did you not continue playing for Surrey after the England job?
Filipe Soares, Portugal

Originally I had intentions of playing on for Surrey for one year, but once I retired from England I asked myself, what would I be playing for?

I couldn't work to get to a higher level, which was how I'd always been, so I felt that meant it was time to call it a day.

Also I'm not convinced I'd have been offered a contract, if they let Ian Ward go for financial reasons, who's 31, I don't think they'd have been rushing to sign a 41-year-old.

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Will you be doing any work on television for cricket programmes? I would really love to see you there and hear your expert opinions.
Phil Lloyd-Bushell, England

At the moment I don't think there's an opportunity but never say never, I think in time that will be an avenue I'll certainly be looking to go down, be it in radio or TV.

I have a love for the game and as a player I said very little, now I've packed up I can express my opinions more openly and more freely so it's definitely something I want to do.

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Brian Lara - there's been lots of chat about the state of the wicket, and the performance of the bowlers - was it, in your view, the greatest innings of all time?
Dan, Wales

I didn't see much of it to be honest. The wicket was flat, but if you can stay there for that amount of time and score that amount of runs it's got to be a great innings.

It's a fantastic feat. I witnessed his every ball of his 375 in the field as he smacked it around Antigua and to do it again and go 25 runs better just ten years later is a brilliant achievement.

I'd suggest he's played more worthwhile match-winning innings, like the one in Barbados against Australia a few years ago, but because of the way West Indies had struggled it was vital he came good when he did.

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Do you think that there should be any changes made to the county system? If so, what reforms would you suggest?
Saleh Ahmed, England

I could gone for few hours with you on this one. You've got to make sure the gap between international cricket and domestic cricket is smaller so the transition is easier.

I think the two divisions has helped, but I want everything: the right pitches the play on and the right practice facilities, you want the right number of days away from actually playing to work on your skills

If you were ever to reduce the number of sides then maybe 12 would be a good number, but I would certainly have just two-up two-down, three is too many.

I'm going into too much detail. It is run pretty well and is in a reasonably healthy position but you're always looking to try to change and improve it.

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Did you ever feel guilty for appealing for catches when you knew perfectly well that the opposing batsman hadn't touched it? Or is it all "part of the game" these days?
Matthew Wassell, England

Well, I only ever appealed when it was out, but then again the umpire is there to make that judgment.

I don't have a problem with people appealing as long as they abide by the umpire's decision, and that they're not ludicrous appeals, you've got to take it in the right way.

No one says you have got to walk when you nick it and if you stand there and gets away with one, well done, if you get given out when you haven't hit it you still walk off the same.

There's also no rule that says you can't appeal, you just have to respect the game and the umpire's decision.

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Assessing the terrible socio-political conditions in Zimbabwe, the apathy of the British Government in supporting the ECB's present stand and the threat to England's Olympic bid from some of the IOC's African block should they refuse to tour, do you think England should tour there this autumn?
Catherine H, UK

From a consistency point of view, unless things have changed from the better since we didn't go during the World Cup, then I can't see how they will go.

You have to look at it in terms of the safety and security of the players and the people who attend the matches.

At least the ECB, this time, is looking into it now and not making a decision two days before the event.

At the moment they are doing it the right way and hopefully the Government will come in and say whether England should or shouldn't go as really it's a political decision in my opinion.

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Have Chelsea blown the league now?
Alan Keys, UK

Is that from an Arsenal supporter? We might have blown the Premier League, but not the Champions League, we're not having a bad season.

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Who was the most difficult to face? Ambrose, McGrath or Donald
Tom Kewell, UK

For me the best bowler is Shane Warne, he's been the biggest difference for Australia for the last ten years.

But I've been lucky enough, or unlucky enough, to play against some fantastic bowlers throughout my career.

I never felt intimidated, if you start to think like that you might as well give it away. I prefer the think that the bowlers were intimidated by me.

I think Warney is a match winner and Wasim Akram and Waquar Younis could take wickets at any time, new or old ball.

But I played against them all, Donald, Marshall, Walsh, Ambrose, McGrath, you name them. But that's why you play Test cricket, to pit yourself against the best.