Alex Jeremy Tudor is born on 23 October 1977 in London. He is an English former professional cricketer who spent two spells with Surrey County Cricket Club as well as playing for Essex. Alex Tudor has all the natural attributes of a fast bowler: height, strength, and the ability to bowl fast and extract bounce from most wickets. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm fast bowler. He was awarded the NBC Denis Compton Award during the 1997 and 1998 seasons. A highly talented performer with bat and ball, his career was hampered by frequent injury trouble.
His Test debut came in the 1998-99 Ashes tour (controversially preferred to Andy Caddick who had taken over 100 first-class wickets the previous season), where he chipped in with 18 not out as England were cut down for a paltry 112, and impressed further with the ball. He took 4 for 89 and won praise from the opposition skipper, Mark Taylor. His further contributions with the bat were the subject of much attention as he batted against New Zealand and hit 99 not out, the highest-ever score by an English night watchman, which led him towards a Cricket Writers' Club Young Cricketer of the Year award; batting partner Graham Thorpe received heavy criticism from their Surrey teammates for not letting him reach a century. Although his bowling was not of the standard he'd have liked, it was his contribution with the bat that created headlines.
Alex Tudor was recalled to the England cricket team for the third Test at Nottingham against Australia in 2001, he took his best Test innings bowling figures, 5/44, but England lost the match, thereby confirming a seventh successive Ashes series defeat. The following year, recalled to the Test team again, he took his best match figures in a Test match, 7/109, winning the man of the match award in a victory at Manchester against Sri Lanka. However, two less successful Tests against India followed.
The initial omission from the 2002/03 Ashes squad was overruled when he was selected above several injured players. But he only appeared in the third Test at Perth, which confirmed another Ashes defeat, his tour also ending in injury as he was forced to retire hurt when batting after being struck by a delivery from Brett Lee. This was, his tenth Test match, which proved to be his last international appearance. He had also played three One Day Internationals in 2002, but his One Day International career also ended in disappointment as England narrowly lost the 2002 NatWest Series final to India at Lord's.
Injuries in 2003 and 2004 followed, and despite his recovery being aided by visits to the German doctor Dr Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt, Tudor was released from his contract by Surrey at the end of the 2004 season. Essex gave him the chance to continue playing first-class cricket the following season, but it was to be another year blighted by injury. He managed to return to action in 2006, playing almost the full season.
He holds the distinction of bowling one of the most expensive overs on record. Bowling for Surrey against Andrew Flintoff at Old Trafford in 1998 he went for 6–4–4–4–4–6–6–0 (34) and in bowling 2 no balls incurred, under ECB regulations at the time, four more penalty runs for a total of 38 runs in one over.
Alex continued to play for Nottingham's West Indian Cavaliers CC until 2012 but later rejoined his boyhood side of Spencer CC in London. Along with playing PCA (of which he is an ambassador) and charity games. Alex runs his own successful company Alex Tudor Coaching. He has been active in Surrey’s African-Caribbean Engagement (ACE) Programme, aimed at encouraging black teenagers into cricket.
Tudor currently coaches cricket at Kimbolton School, an independent school in the Cambridgeshire countryside. Tudor also had a role in the first episode of the Freddie Flintoff documentary Field of Dreams coaching novice cricketers in the Preston region, his involvement was limited however and his contributions in later episodes were less regular.
