IT COULD all have been so different for Gavin Hamilton. He could have had the riches and the rewards. Instead of battling it out with the likes of Tony Adams and Paul Merson for progression through the Arsenal youth ranks, he chose cricket. And although it has been good to him over the years, its benevolence has not always been so transparent.
Yet here stands the only England Test cap ever to emerge from Broxburn, still playing, still smiling and still ready to seize upon any available opportunity to thrash ball to boundary or catch anything lofted towards his outpost in the covers.
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hat he doesn't need it any more makes his endeavours all the more admirable. The man who made a solitary appearance for Blighty before the sporting gods chose to remove much of his sparkle may not be what he once was. But in the words of the late, great Richard Pryor, he ain't dead yet.
Last night, Hamilton, now 33, set off on a familiar journey from his base, near Bradford, to Edinburgh. Back to where it all began, during that heady World Cup of 1999 when he was the Saltire par excellence.
A 418-mile round trip to turn out for Scotland at The Grange against his former county, Yorkshire, all for a stipend which will be a fraction of what his one-time contemporary Michael Vaughan will pick up at Lord's today. With a full-time gig as a travelling sales rep for a brewery, he could be taking his weekends literally. Instead, there is duty for his club side East Brierley, as well as service for the motherland.
"The travel's a mixed bag really," he admits. "It all depends on how the club cricket goes on a Saturday. If it finishes early, it helps. I suppose if we've won, it seems a bit shorter a journey as well."
The greying hairs around the temple well illustrate his evolution. So too do the wrinkles, accelerated perhaps by the furrowed brow which once seemed omnipresent when he confronted the cruel mortality of an all-rounder's trade. At the close of last year's World Cup, where he could not repeat his magic of before, he hinted strongly at hanging up his whites. It took a trial separation from the game he first savoured when his family migrated southward when he was five to tempt him back.
Yet he insists he never actually fell out of love with cricket. "I maybe resented it a little at times, to say the least," he affirms. "It's nice now. It's not my living any more. There are more important things: my family, my friends, my job I suppose. That takes the pressure off, not so much in performing, because you always want to go out there and do well. But I can enjoy the game in the same way I did when I was 18 or 19 and that's really what it's all about."
At its essence though, cricket remains constant. He rarely bowls now but the magnificent 44 he delivered against India last summer proved to many, not least himself, that there are miles left in his personal tank. Presently, the Saltires' ongoing batting struggles are a concern. How they could do with another rabbit from Hamilton's hat this afternoon.
"I've felt I've been playing quite well," he says, despite an average of just 8.5 in the four Friends Provident Trophy fixtures thus far. "I'd certainly know it if I wasn't playing well because that's when I start panicking and worrying about it all.
"I've had a couple of loose shots here and there in the past few weeks and overall, we know we've struggled a bit batting-wise. The thing is, if you look around the country, nobody is scoring runs. We're only four games into the season. I feel my feet are moving well. I'm confident. And I'm sensing getting runs is just around the corner."
• Scotland v Yorkshire, The Grange, today from 12 noon
The full article contains 682 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
