Grant Stewart (born 19 February 1994) is an Italian-Australian professional

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who plays for

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ke ...

.Grant Stewart

. Retrieved 2017-09-25. He made his

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

debut for Kent in September 2017 in the club's final

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

match of the season, having signed his first professional contract at the end of August.Denly dominates to boost Kent

CricInfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

, 2017-09-25. Retrieved 2017-09-26. He plays as a bowling all-rounder and has been described as "a big, strong lad who hits it a mile and bowls with reasonable pace" and as having "heaps of natural ability" as a cricketer.Stewart brothers team up for Newcastle in Country Championships cricket final
''

Newcastle Herald The ''Newcastle Herald'' (formerly branded as ''The Herald'') is a local tabloid newspaper published daily, Monday to Saturday, in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. It is the only local newspaper that serves the greater Hunter Region and ...

'', 2015-11-25. Retrieved 2018-06-27. In 2021 he made his

Twenty20 International A Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of cricket, played between two of the international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in which each team faces a maximum of twenty overs. The matches have top-class status and are the ...

debut for

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, qualifying to play for the side through his Italian mother.

Early life

Stewart is a qualified civil engineer who attended the University of Newcastle and worked as a graduate project engineer in Australia.Hoad A (2017
Kent sign Australian-born all-rounder Grant Stewart to a professional contract
''

Kent Online KM Media Group is a multimedia company in the county of Kent, England which originated as the publisher of the Kent Messenger. The Group now produces local newspapers, radio stations and websites throughout the county. Iliffe Media acquired KM ...

'', 2017-08-30. Retrieved 2017-09-25.Pennell M (2017) 'Stewart jumps at the chance to engineer a cricket career', ''Kent v Glamorgan - match guide'',

, 2017-09-25. Canterbury: Kent County Cricket Club. He was born at

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area includ ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

but grew up mainly in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, first in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

and then in Lorn near

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

, living on a turf farm.Callinan J (2017
Hunter product Grant Stewart cracks Kent county squad
''

'', 2017-08-31. Retrieved 2018-06-27.Callinan J (2018
Hunter-bred, first-class all-rounder Grant Stewart smashes maiden English county ton batting at No.10 for Kent after claiming five-wicket haul
''

'', 2018-06-27. Retrieved 2018-06-27. Originally a

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. Th ...

and

leg-spin Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action. The leg spinner's normal delivery causes the ball to spin from right to left (from the bowler's perspective) when the ball bounces on the ...

bowler, he converted to play as a fast bowler and played for Northern Suburbs Cricket Club in

Maitland Maitland is an English and Scottish surname. It arrived in Britain after the Norman conquest of 1066. There are two theories about its source. It is either a nickname reference to "bad temper/disposition" (Old French, ''Maltalent''; Anglo Norm ...

and Newcastle Cricket Club alongside Kent pace bowler Mitchell Claydon, winning representative honours with the New South Wales Country XI in 2016.Callinan J (2015
Grant Stewart ready for NSW Country cricket debut
''

'', 2015-12-31. Retrieved 2018-06-27.Callinan J (2016
Lorn's Grant Stewart has mixed results at Australian country cricket titles
''

'', 2016-01-12. Retrieved 2018-06-27. Stewart's brother, Luke, occasionally played alongside him at Newcastle.

Career

Stewart was encouraged by Claydon to move to England in 2016 to play cricket in the

Kent Cricket League The Kent Cricket League is the top level of competition for recreational club cricket in Kent, England. The league was founded in 1970 and the first season of play was 1971. The twelve founding clubs were Ashford, Aylesford Paper Mills, Dartf ...

, first with HSBC and then, in 2017, with Sandwich Town. He holds a European Union passport as his mother is Italian, qualifying him to play as a non-overseas player in England.Grant Stewart signs professional contract

, 2017-08-30. Retrieved 2017-09-25.Grant Stewart set for Italy debut

, 2021-10-14. Retrieved 2021-10-19. Stewart moved to play for Adelaide University Cricket Club in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

during the 2016/17 season and returned to Kent in 2018. After taking 29 wickets during a series of successful performances for the Kent Second XI in 2017, Stewart signed his first professional contract with Kent at the end of August 2017. After making his first-class debut at the end of the 2017 season, he made his first

List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

appearance during Kent's pre-season campaign at the 2017–18 Regional Super50 competition in the West Indies, taking three wickets against

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

at the

Coolidge Cricket Ground The Coolidge Cricket Ground is a cricket ground in Osbourn, Saint George Parish, Antigua. It was previously known as the Airport Cricket Ground, before it was taken over by American businessman and cricket enthusiast Allen Stanford, rebuilt ...

Antigua Antigua ( ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Bar ...

.Gidman inspires Guyana win
Kent County Cricket Club, 2018-02-11. Retrieved 2018-02-11.Hunter product Grant Stewart marks A-List debut for Kent with scalp of former Windies captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul
''

'', 2018-02-14. Retrieved 2018-06-27. After starting the season in the first XI, a hamstring injury limited his appearances for Kent at the beginning of their 2018 season. Stewart returned to the side in a day/night match against

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

in late June, taking his best bowling figures of 6/22 in a spell during the first evening of the match which reduced Middlesex to 54/9. The following day he scored his maiden first-class century, making 103 runs from 71 balls, the fastest

century of the season, setting a Kent record for the highest score made by a number 10 batsman. Stewart and

Ivan Thomas Ivan Alfred Astley Thomas (born 25 September 1991) is an English professional cricketer who most recently played for Kent County Cricket Club. He is a right-arm medium-fast seam bowler who bats right-handed. He made his first-class cricket de ...

put on a century partnership for the last wicket, Thomas contributing only one run, equalling the lowest contribution made by a batsman to a 100 run partnership.Claridge A (2018
Kent bowler makes history – with the bat
''The Canterbury Journal'', 2018-06-27. Retrieved 2018-06-27.Bandarupalli S (2018
Stats: Kent’s No.11 batsman scores one run in a century partnership
CrickTracker, 2018-06-27. Retrieved 2018-06-28. Injuries limited Stewart's appearances for Kent in 2019 as well, with a hamstring injury suffered in August finally ending his season early. He signed a two-year contract extension in January 2020, keeping him at the club until 2022.Reeves T (2020
Kent Cricket all-rounder Grant Stewart signs two-year contract extension with the club
''

'', 2020-01-21. Retrieved 2020-01-23.Grant Stewart: Kent all-rounder extends contract until 2022 season

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...

, 2020-01-21. Retrieved 2020-01-23. In May 2021, it was announced that Stewart would play for the

Italian cricket team The Italy national cricket team is the men's team that represents the country of Italy in international cricket. They have been an associate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) since 1995, having previously been an affiliate memb ...

in the final stage of the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier tournament. In September he was named in Italy's squad and made his

debut on 15 October against

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

. In April 2022, Stewart was loaned to

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

for a month to provide cover for injured players. He played in one match for the side before being recalled to Kent after an injury to

Jackson Bird Jackson Munro Bird (born 11 December 1986) is an Australian international cricketer. He has played for Australia in the past and currently plays first-class cricket for Tasmania. Bird is a fast-medium bowler. He is originally from Sydney and wa ...

.Kent recall Grant Stewart from Sussex loan following Jackson Bird injury
''

The Cricketer ''The Cricketer'' is a monthly English cricket magazine providing writing and photography from international, county and club cricket. The magazine was founded in 1921 by Sir Pelham Warner, an ex-England captain turned cricket writer. Warner ...

'', 2022-04-24. Retrieved 2022-04-24.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stewart, Grant 1994 births Living people Kent cricketers Sussex cricketers Australian people of Italian descent Sportspeople of Italian descent Australian cricketers Italian cricketers Italy Twenty20 International cricketers Australian emigrants to Italy Italian people of Australian descent Sportspeople from Kalgoorlie Cricketers from Western Australia