Stewart's successor will be Adam Hollioake, the club's vicecaptain, who showed his qualities of leadership leading England A on their successful winter tour of Australia.
Stewart said yesterday: ``In the light of the possible England demands becoming heavier, and my additional job of keeping wicket in the majority of Surrey games, I have decided to step down. I believe this is in the best interests of the club and myself so that I can return the best results with bat and gloves.''
Surrey, meanwhile, have made Stewart honorary club captain in recognition of his past service and achievements, which included leading the side to the Sunday League title last season, their first success since winning the NatWest Trophy in 1982.
In a resignation rumpus at Trent Bridge, Nottinghamshire's former England batsmen Derek Randall and Reg Simpson have been accused of living off their past reputations.
Stuart Foster has resigned as vice-chairman of the club after saying he had lost patience with the lack of input from certain committee colleagues, especially some ex-players.
The county have four former players on their 12-man committee but Randall, who attended only five out of a possible 11 meetings last year, Simpson and Kevin Saxelby are those whose contributions have now been called into question.
``I feel very strongly that people are standing for the committee for all the wrong reasons,'' Foster said yesterday. ``Many of them are just there to grab the glory and the limelight and they include some ex-players.
``I find it so frustrating that certain people are voted back onto the committe regardless of the input they've had. We have a much weaker committee than we've had for many years now with three or four members making very little contribution and one in particular none at all.
``With some of the antics that have gone on surrounding the committee in recent times, I fear we are in danger of becoming a laughing stock in the eyes of members and other counties.''
Worries in the Australian camp when Mark Taylor's ricked back made him doubtful for the second Test starting in Port El- izabeth tomorrow subsided when the captain came through a rigorous work-out yesterday, writes Peter Deeley.
Taylor now seems certain to lead the side and open the batting, while Glenn McGrath has overcome a minor foot injury. This means Australia, one up in the three-match series, are likely to be un- changed from their Johannesburg victory.
South Africa, on the other hand, are deliberating whether to play off-spinner Pat Symcox instead of the left-armer Paul Adams.
Noel David, a Hyderabad off-spinner with a mere 28 firstclass wickets but a double century to his name, has left for the West Indies to join the Indian tourists.
David, 26, received the unexpected call after a shoulder injury ruled out the fast bowler Javagal Srinath.
The touring Sri Lankans are replacing opening batsman Duleep Samaraweera and medium-pace bowler Pramodaya Wickremasinghe with the all-rounders Ruwan Kalpage and Upul Chandana for the forthcoming one-day series against New Zealand.
Gloucestershire have signed Tasmanian all-rounder Shaun Young as their overseas player for the season.