ISO 3166 is a standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It defines codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, special areas of geographical interest, and their principal subdivisions (e.g., provinces or states). The official name of the standard is Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions. It consists of three parts:^[1]

• ISO 3166-1, Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 1: Country codes, defines codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest. It defines three sets of country codes:
  • ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 – two-letter country codes which are the most widely used of the three, and used most prominently for the Internet's country code top-level domains (with a few exceptions).
  • ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 – three-letter country codes which allow a better visual association between the codes and the country names than the alpha-2 codes.
  • ISO 3166-1 numeric – three-digit country codes which are identical to those developed and maintained by the United Nations Statistics Division, with the advantage of script (writing system) independence, and hence useful for people or systems using non-Latin scripts.
• ISO 3166-2, Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 2: Country subdivision code, defines codes for the names of the principal subdivisions (e.g., provinces or states) of all countries coded in ISO 3166-1.
• ISO 3166-3, Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 3: Code for formerly used names of countries, defines codes for country names which have been deleted from ISO 3166-1 since its first publication in 1974.

The first edition of ISO 3166 was published in 1974, which included only alphabetic country codes. The second edition, published in 1981, also included numeric country codes, with the third and fourth editions published in 1988 and 1993 respectively. The fifth edition, published between 1997 and 1999, was expanded into three parts to include codes for subdivisions and former countries.^[2]

ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency[link]

The ISO 3166 standard is maintained by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency (ISO 3166/MA), located at the ISO central office in Geneva, Switzerland. Originally it was located at the Deutsches Institut für Normung (DIN) in Berlin, Germany. Its principal tasks are:^[3]

• To add and to eliminate country names (respectively, country subdivision names) and to assign code elements to them;
• To publish lists of country names (respectively, country subdivision names) and code elements;
• To maintain a reference list of all country code elements and country subdivision code elements used and their period of use;
• To issue newsletters announcing changes to the code tables;
• To advise users on the application of ISO 3166.

Members[link]

There are ten experts with voting rights on the ISO 3166/MA.^[4] Five are representatives of national standards organizations:

• Association française de normalisation (AFNOR) – France
• American National Standards Institute (ANSI) – United States
• British Standards Institution (BSI) – United Kingdom
• Deutsches Institut für Normung (DIN) – Germany
• Swedish Standards Institute (SIS) – Sweden

The other five are representatives of major United Nations agencies or other international organizations who are all users of ISO 3166-1:

• International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
• International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
• Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
• Universal Postal Union (UPU)
• United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)

The ISO 3166/MA has further associated members who do not participate in the votes but who, through their expertise, have significant influence on the decision taking procedure in the maintenance agency.

See also[link]

• ISO 639 – Codes for the representation of names of languages
• ISO 15924 – Codes for the representation of names of scripts
• ISO 4217 – Currency codes
• FIPS 10-4

References[link]

External links[link]

• ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency, International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

Alec James Stewart OBE (born 8 April 1963) is a retired English cricketer, a right-handed batsman-wicketkeeper and former captain of the England cricket team. He is the most capped English cricketer of all time in Test matches^[1] and 2nd most capped in One Day Internationals, having played in 133 Tests and 170 ODIs.

Career[link]

The younger son of former English Test cricketer Micky Stewart, Stewart was educated at Tiffin School in Kingston upon Thames.^[2] He made his début for Surrey in 1981, earning a reputation as an aggressive opening batsman and occasional wicketkeeper. He made his England début in the first Test of the 1989/90 tour of the West Indies, along with Nasser Hussain, who would eventually replace him as England captain.

At the start of his career, Stewart was a specialist opening batsman for England, with wicketkeeping duties being retained by Jack Russell, who was generally recognised as the superior gloveman and who batted down the order. However, Russell, the inferior batsman, would often be dropped to improve the balance of the side (i.e. to accommodate an extra bowler or batsman), in which case Stewart would don the gloves. After enduring years of selection and deselection, Russell retired from international cricket in 1998, leaving Stewart unrivalled as England's keeper-batsman until his own retirement in 2003.

His highest Test score, 190, was against Pakistan in the drawn first Edgbaston Test on 4 June 1992; it was his fourth century in five Tests. In 1994 at the Kensington Oval he became only the seventh Englishman to score centuries in both innings of a Test match, scoring 118 and 143 as the West Indies were beaten at their Bridgetown "fortress" for the first time since 1935.^[3]

Stewart was groomed for the England captaincy under Graham Gooch, deputising for him in four tests in India and Sri Lanka in 1993, but when Gooch retired from the captaincy later that year Michael Atherton was chosen to succeed him.

Always more of an establishment figure than any sort of rebel, it was no surprise when Stewart was asked to captain England in 1998 when Mike Atherton resigned. By this time, however, Stewart was 35 and even though his fitness record was impeccable - most players do not continue beyond 37. As it was Stewart went on to play for England beyond his 40th birthday - but as events were to transpire - his captaincy of England barely lasted 12 months.

In his first series as captain, against South Africa, Stewart scored an outstanding 164 in the third Test at Old Trafford to salvage a draw, a result which eventually enabled England to overturn a 1–0 deficit to win the series 2–1. Nonetheless, failures against Australia and in the 1999 cricket World Cup saw him sacked from the captaincy to be replaced by Hussain. During his captaincy, he had the unusual distinction of simultaneously captaining the side, opening the batting and keeping wicket. He continued to deputise occasionally as captain of England's one-day side, and became the second international captain to concede a match in 2001, after a pitch invasion during a One Day International against Pakistan rendered the continuation of play impossible.^[4] He continued as an England player for five more seasons, and became only the fourth player to score a century in his 100th Test, scoring 105 against the West Indies at Old Trafford in 2000.

Stewart's batting average (39.54) is the lowest of any player to have scored 8000 or more runs in Test cricket: he is the only player to have scored over 8000 runs despite an average of under 40.^[5] However, this still represents a fine return given he had the burden of keeping wicket in 82 of his 133 Test matches. As a specialist batsman in Test cricket, Stewart averaged an impressive 46.90 in 51 games with 9 centuries. Since World War II, only Len Hutton, Geoff Boycott and Dennis Amiss have bettered Stewart's average of 46 as a specialist opening batsman.^[6] As wicketkeeper-batsman he averaged 34.92 from 82 tests, higher than many of his contemporaries and many of the current batch of international wicketkeepers. He was unlucky enough to be on the losing side in a record 54 Test Matches.

Alec Stewart was probably the best example of England's "unique" selectorial policies throughout his international career. He was a superb player of fast bowling - probably the best in the country - but was nowhere near as fluent against spin - particularly early on in an innings. As a keeper, he was very good but there were better glovemen around during his time - notably Jack Russell, Steve Rhodes and Chris Read. Therefore it was no surprise that in the early 1990s England used him correctly as an opening batsman who did not keep wicket. When England were short of runs from their wicket keeper, the selectors gave the gloves to Stewart and shoved him down the order to number 6 - a policy that often backfired as Stewart was forced to start an innings against spin. Against top class spinners like Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill he struggled - not scoring a century against Australia until his 5th Ashes campaign. Had England left Stewart opening the batting (a position Stewart himself expressed a preference for - though at the same time said he would bat anywhere for England) and played a specialist wicket keeper who could bat at 7 - England may have fared better. The continual movement of Stewart up and down the order keeping and not keeping arguably did not allow England to reap full reward from Stewart's proven ability against fast bowling. Garry Sobers once said that "Alec Stewart is your best player against real quicks because he is the only one who gets back and across" ("Captain Calypso", BBC TV, May 1994)

Stewart is a well-known supporter of Surrey County Cricket Club and Chelsea F.C. When shirt numbers were introduced for One Day International cricket, Stewart chose the number 4 shirt in honour of his favourite Chelsea player when growing up, John Hollins, and kept that shirt number throughout his career.^[7]

Post-playing career[link]

In 2004, Stewart became a founding director of Arundel Promotions with specific responsibility for player management and representation. Cricket playing clients include Paul Collingwood, Ian Bell, Ashley Giles and Matt Prior.^[8]

In 2009, Stewart rejoined Surrey as a part time consultant to the coaching staff specialising in batting, wicket keeping and mentoring.^[9]

Since retiring from playing Stewart has taken on the role as the Club Ambassador for Surrey CCC

Honours[link]

• Wisden Cricketer of the Year 1993
• Awarded the MBE on 13 June 1998
• Awarded the OBE on 14 June 2003

Alec Stewart's career performance graph.

• Highest Test run scorer in the world during the 1990s

• As a mark of his achievements Surrey CCC have named the gates at the Vauxhall End after him: the Alec Stewart Gates

References[link]

1. ^ Alec Stewart: most Test matches playing for England, stats.espncricinfo.com, http://stats.espncricinfo.com/england/engine/records/individual/most_matches_career.html?class=1;id=1;type=team  Retrieved on 3 September, 2011
2. ^ "Alec was aggressive - He'd even sledge the teachers Says the England captain's Games Master!", Sunday Mirror, Steve Whiting, 24 May 1998
3. ^ Wisden: West Indies v England, 1993-94
4. ^ Stewart concedes defeat after another pitch invasion
5. ^ Cricinfo statsguru: batsmen who scored 8000 Test runs or more
6. ^ Cricinfo statsguru: openers by batting average since 1945
7. ^ Profile at Arundel Promotions
8. ^ http://www.athletes1.co.uk/content/169/index.html
9. ^ [1]

External links[link]

• Alec Stewart's Greatest One-Day XI
• Player profile: Alec Stewart from ESPNcricinfo
• Alec Stewart at Cricket Archive

Alec Stewart at the Cricket World Cup
v t e England squad – 1992 Cricket World Cup (runners-up) 1 Gooch (c) 2 Botham 3 DeFreitas 4 Fairbrother 5 Hick 6 Illingworth 7 Lamb 8 Lewis 9 Pringle 10 Reeve 11 Small 12 Smith 13 Stewart (wk) 14 Tufnell
v t e England squad – 1996 Cricket World Cup 1 Atherton (c) 2 Cork 3 DeFreitas 4 Fairbrother 5 Gough 6 Hick 7 Martin 8 Illingworth 9 Russell (wk) 10 NMK Smith 11 RA Smith 12 Stewart (wk) 13 Thorpe 14 White Dermot Reeve was called up as an injury replacement.
v t e England squad – 1999 Cricket World Cup 1 Stewart (c/wk) 2 Austin 3 Croft 4 Ealham 5 Fairbrother 6 Flintoff 7 Fraser 8 Gough 9 Hick 10 Hollioake 11 Hussain 12 Knight 13 Mullally 14 Thorpe 15 Wells Coach: Lloyd
v t e England squad – 2003 Cricket World Cup 1 Knight 2 Caddick 3 Hussain 4 Stewart 6 White 11 Flintoff 15 Irani 22 Hoggard 23 Trescothick 28 Harmison 29 Giles 37 Blackwell 40 Anderson 50 Collingwood 99 Vaughan Coach: Fletcher