Cricket: Gavin Hamilton ready for last hurrah after 17 years at sharp end

IN 1948, Donald Bradman coloured his last game in the United Kingdom with a century at Mannofield, the well- appointed batsman's paradise in central Aberdeen, and it is there this weekend that Gavin Hamilton will wind up his international career.

Drawing parallels between the two is not as obtuse an exercise as it might appear. The Don had an incomparable impact on the number of young Australians who picked up bats with the intention of playing for their country. Hamilton, when he lit up the 1999 World Cup, was similarly influential in what was, admittedly, a more vacuous cricket environment.

The left-hander already has two one-day international hundreds to his name at Mannofield, and an average of 49.86. Halfway, neatly, to Bradman's iconic Test average, and a princely record among mortals. A romantic finale beckons, then, as Hampshire and Leicestershire aim in the Clydesdale Bank 40 to prevent him from breaking 50.

Hamilton would be happier if the Saltires were to win either match. Of his 130 caps to date, a high proportion of the gala occasions have ended in defeat. For him, the first suppressor of amateur aspirations was Graham Gooch, at Lochside Park in Forfar in April 1993, when player/coach Jim Love picked 18-year-old Hamilton to bowl first change in the Benson & Hedges Cup.

"I was bowling to Goochie, and that says it all really," says the 35-year-old, then a Yorkshire academy prospect. "I saw all the big-name players from Essex turning up, and I was just very raw and excited. Those guys had an aura about them, and to me many of them still do (Essex also fielded Nasser Hussain, Nick Knight, Salim Malik and Derek Pringle].

"I bowled quite well; at least I didn't get hammered. I remember it like it was yesterday - Jim made me bat at 11, and we had 55 overs and I still didn't get in. Iain Philip and Bruce Patterson were the mainstays of the team then, and George Salmond, who was a fantastic Scotland captain and had a huge influence on me. In those days, it was just about wanting to be picked for the next game. There wasn't a massive awareness of playing for Scotland."

There have been three chapters in Hamilton's Scotland narrative and the first lasted just 15 months, whereupon Yorkshire took command of his summers. But, when Salmond's side qualified for their first World Cup, and 1999 came along with Hamilton in his prime, the reunion was mutually beneficial.

"I met Jim at Harrogate, but he didn't really want to interfere with things down south and he knew how it worked. I'd been away with England A in Australia and was in the initial 30 for the World Cup, and we just agreed that if I didn't make it, I'd play for Scotland. I was in a no-lose situation. Everybody wants to play for England. But to be honest, it worked out better this way."

By that Hamilton means that when England turned their backs on him after one game (a Test, rather than the ODI initiation that would have been a natural reward for his World Cup feats), he could still enjoy an international career. This worked out well for Scotland. They lost all five of their games, one of them painfully to Bangladesh in Edinburgh, but Hamilton made 261 runs and Salmond talks fondly of the day he returned to his school to find children playing cricket in the playground and haggling over who would get to be Gavin Hamilton.

Another exile ensued, this time enforced by ICC rules about swapping nations, and Scotland's growth was a slower process than Hamilton had hoped. "A lot of players knew that World Cup was a bit of a swansong," he recalls. "It put Scotland a little bit on the map and got people more interested, and it was a massive boost. But we in the team were very hopeful that it would have been a real springboard. But it's never easy. There was always talk of money coming in for full-time players, and I've heard it so many times."

Finally, the money for a clutch of full-time players is in place, albeit from the central coffers of the ICC. But, when Hamilton returned in 2004, he found a side who were playing (and mostly winning) around the world on a bedrock of individual commitment and statutory annual leave. When the captaincy came up early last year, altruism was behind his willingness to commute from Bradford to do the job. He felt he should break his back in the manner that less gifted team-mates had been for years.

The Broxburn-born man retires now with pride fully intact - two weeks ago he flashed 64 off 60 balls against Durham - but not without regrets. "Every time we beat a county it was memorable, and when we beat Ireland in 2005 in the ICC Trophy it was a great time to be involved in Scottish cricket," he says. "But I always wanted to beat a top international side, or at least put in a performance I knew we were capable of against an England or an Australia, that's been the one real disappointment."

The myriad memories of 17 years at the sharp end of his sport will surely heal the wounds in time. But when Hamilton has grandchildren on either knee 20 years from now, in what order will he tell them that he played for England, Yorkshire, Durham and Scotland?

"I'll probably say Scotland, Yorkshire and Durham - and England might sneak in there somewhere," he chuckles. "I've said it many times, but Scotland have always been there for me."