Lives in Cricket No 23 - Brief Candles

70 Asked in mid-2009 how he would react if a call came to rejoin a professional side, his answer was unequivocally in the negative. 111 And when, a year later, I asked him if in ten years’ time his rugby days will be behind him, he was equally unequivocal: ‘Absolutely.’ He has no wish to stay in the game as a manager or coach: ‘It’s just not me’. But cricket, in ten years’ time? ‘Still heavily involved. I’d like to be still playing.’ When his pro rugby career finally ended, Stuart had other skills that were – ought to have been – marketable for a career outside sport. A BSc in economics from Loughborough and an MA degree in economics and management from Cambridge ought to have opened doors in his preferred area of banking, finance or investment. ‘Unfortunately I finished my rugby career in the middle of a worldwide recession, so looking for a job in investment wasn’t ideal timing.’ After a period on the jobs market, he found employment for a while in Edinburgh with a head-hunting firm for financial services, but found life at a desk unsatisfying after so long playing rugby. So, as at mid-2011, he was doing some cricket coaching, and looking to invest in a suitable business venture: something that he believes would be more in keeping with his lifestyle. Stuart’s attitude to professional sport – to sport in general – and to its place in a balanced life is one of the reasons why a word sometimes used to describe him is ‘Corinthian’. With its associations of amateurism, sport- for-fun, perhaps some suggestion of sport as a diversion for wealthy gentlemen, and some suggestion too of sporting versatility, it suits him well. On the versatility front, as well as cricket and rugby he was a successful squash player in younger days, has aspirations of getting his golf handicap down to scratch, and hopes too to bag a few more Munros as opportunity arises. As for wealthy – well, it’s not for me to know or say, but I don’t get the impression that the breadline beckons. But most of all, there’s the amateur issue, and the matter of sport for fun. The word ‘fun’ recurred both in my meetings with Stuart, and in many of the other pieces I’ve read about him. Rugby – at Cambridge, even at Glasgow – was fun when it was going well; but when things turned trickier, and the grind began, then the fun was lost and it was no longer any pleasure. He says now that, for all that the money in rugby was good, ‘it was never about the money – it was always about just playing rugby. I really do think I would have enjoyed it all more if I had been an amateur player.’ While the pressures of professional rugby brought about that loss of fun, this has never been the case with cricket. In the Scottish set-up, there was never any realistic prospect of a career as a professional cricketer, and the 111 The source for this and the quotation at the end of the previous paragraph is an article in The Herald , 27 September 2009. Runs Aplenty Stuart Moffat played rugby in Italy for the Lombardy side Viadana in 2007/08.