England wicket-keeper Alec Stewart has announced his decision to retire from Test cricket after the Test series against South Africa.

The 40-year-old, affectionately known as 'The Gaffer', seemed to have denied the creeping hands of time for so long that it seemed even another winter tour or three could be on his agenda.

But he has decided against that, perhaps knowing that the younger brigade, and Nottinghamshire's Chris Read in particular, cannot be denied indefinitely.

Even so, the selectors saw no better candidate for the national gloves when they named their squad for Thursday's Edgbaston Test, and fitness permitting – and even in his fifth decade Stewart remains one of the fittest men around – he will end his remarkable international career on 'home' turf at The Oval in September.

A clear run of all five Tests this summer will also give him 133 Test caps, moving him ahead of Courtney Walsh and into third in the all-time list, with only the Australians Steve Waugh and Allan Border ahead of him. Not bad going for a man who didn't get his chance in Test cricket until just before his 27th birthday.

"I have given it a lot of thought and I let Duncan (Fletcher) know this morning over breakfast and then informed David Graveney as well," Stewart confirmed at Edgbaston on Tuesday.

"It's not something I have taken lightly. I had 13 years as an international cricketer and it's not something you just give away.

"I could have left it until later on in the summer but I thought it was better to get it out in the open now so we can get on with the series."

Stewart's career highlights have been many and varied, but perhaps his two centuries in England's historic win at Bridgetown in 1994, and the century in his 100th Test at Old Trafford in 2001, spring most readily to mind

His huge contribution to English cricket over the past two decades have been recognised at the highest level, with awards of both the MBE and OBE in recent Queen's Honours Lists.

Perhaps most of all though, once statistics and gongs have been laid to one side, is the memory that no other player of Stewart's generation ever wore the England shirt with greater pride. And he's handing it over to his successor on his own terms, very much the mark of one of one of the finest cricketers this country has ever produced.

22 Jul, 2003