Star England batter and former captain Joe Root hailed late English great Graham Thorpe, noting that he would have not enjoyed such a brilliant career with the Three Lions without his backing. England players will pay tribute to the late batter before the start of the first Test match against Sri Lanka at Manchester on Wednesday. The teams will be lining up for a moment of applause before their national anthems at the Old Trafford Stadium, with a tribute video being played on the big screen. Broadcaster Sky Sports will also be paying tribute to the batter in their coverage.

Thorpe died by suicide at the age of 55 on August 4, after years of battle with what his wife Amanda described as “major depression and anxiety”. Thorpe made his international debut in 1993 and was the mainstay of the English batting throughout the late 90s and early 2000s. The southpaw played 100 Tests and scored 6744 runs at an average of 44.66, with 16 hundreds and 39 fifties to his name. His highest score was 200*. In ODIs, the gritty batter scored 2380 runs at an average of 37.18 with 21 fifties.

Root, who worked with Thorpe during his days with England Lions as an up-and-coming batter rising through the ranks and then later with the England senior team in the late 2010s and early 2020s as one of the all-time greats, said that Thorpe was a “complete batter”, a “rockstar: and helped him improve his game, especially in subcontinent conditions.

“He was one of the players that stood out in that time [for England in the 1990s and early 2000s]. He was one of the guys that consistently performed when things were tough and when results were not always going in our favour, which I think is a great quality to have,” said Root as quoted by Sky Sports.

“Even when I was young and learning about the sport, you could tell he had a good game against both spin and high pace. He could play the short ball well but also had success in Sri Lanka. He was the complete batter, like a rock star who could sing you a ballad and rock your socks off at the same time. I always looked up to him and took a lot of inspiration from him,” he added.

Root said that a lot of interactions with Thorpe came when he started his coaching career with the England Lions in 2010 and the veteran backed Root to be a key part of the team. This stint with England Lions started a close relationship that the two would share over the next 12 years or so, in which Root had the support of Thorpe. He also noted the late batters’ role in developing the next generation of England batting, most particularly, skipper Ben Stokes.

“A lot of my interactions with Graham and where his biggest influences came were as a coach when he started the second phase of his career. It was quite surreal first getting to meet someone of his stature and talking about the game,” said Root.

“It was about a year or so later, before I had even scored a first-class hundred, that he was involved in the England Lions set-up and pushed really hard for me to be involved in that team. I worked very closely with him for the next 12 years or so. He had a huge influence on my career and arguably without his backing and pushing my case, I may not have had the career I have had.”

“Clearly the work he put in during that 10-12 year period… he worked tirelessly. We had good, honest conversations about areas I needed to improve. Not just me but you look at guys that came through in that time: Jonny Bairstow, Jason Roy, Jos Buttler, James Vince, Sam Billings. He played a big role in Ben Stokes’ development,” Root concluded his point.

Root said that the team is grateful to Thorpe for his contributions, noting his attention to some fundamentals of the game and how he worked differently with each batter. The superstar batter also credited Thorpe for improving his game in the Asian conditions.

“There were certain fundamentals that he was big on – can you get really close to the ball and far away from it? – but he did not have one way of coaching. The way he spoke to Jonny would be different to the way he spoke to me and to Jos and to J-Roy (Jason Roy),” he said.

“A lot of the scores I have got over the years in the subcontinent have been down to the basics I learnt from my very first tour with him,” he added.

Root said that some of the biggest lessons he learnt from Thorpe were shared off the field, in which the late player would share his set of struggles with cricket and lift as well, which helped Root a lot as a youngster. He termed his bonding with Thorpe as “special”.

“Some of the best lessons I learned were not necessarily in the nets but over dinner or a few glasses of wine, just talking about the game, about shared experiences people can relate to. He was very good at that, talking about areas of his game he struggled with and similarly other areas of life as well,” said Root.

“It is a special coach that can have that relationship with players and it was certainly one I managed to have with Graham. He could change the mood in the dressing room if things were quite tough, he had a great sense of humour, he could make difficult situations a lot easier and was always great fun to be around. That is something I am really going to miss.”

“A lot will and should be talked about how brilliant a player he was for a long period of time, but we should remember the impact he has had on English cricket as a fantastic coach as well,” Root signed off.

Former England batsman Graham Thorpe died after being struck by a train at a railway station, an inquest into his death heard Tuesday. The 55-year-old took his own life, his wife Amanda revealed on Monday in an interview with The Times. Thorpe died on the morning of August 4 having suffered “traumatic injuries” during the incident at Esher railway station, southwest of London, Surrey Coroner’s Court in Woking was told. The area coroner for Surrey, Simon Wickens, recorded Thorpe’s cause of death as one of multiple injuries during the short hearing. The coroner offered his “sincere condolences” not just to Thorpe’s family, but to “all those touched by his life and career”.

A date for the full inquest will be fixed at a later time.

Thorpe’s death plunged the cricket world into mourning for the popular star.

He enjoyed an impressive England career as an elegant batsman from 1993 to 2005, before spending 12 years in various coaching roles.

But Thorpe was hospitalised in May 2022 and declared “seriously ill”.

Amanda Thorpe told The Times that the former Surrey batsman attempted suicide two years ago before taking his own life.

“Despite having a wife and two daughters whom he loved and who loved him, he did not get better. He was so unwell in recent times and he really did believe that we would be better off without him and we are devastated that he acted on that and took his own life,” she said.

Amanda Thorpe added: “Graham was renowned as someone who was very mentally strong on the field and he was in good physical health.

“But mental illness is a real disease and can affect anyone.

Thorpe’s daughter Kitty, 22, said the family “are not ashamed” of talking about his death, adding: “There is nothing to hide and it is not a stigma.”

The left-hander featured in 100 Test matches and 82 one-day internationals for England, scoring over 9,000 runs for his country, including 16 Test hundreds.

Former England cricketer Graham Thorpe took his own life after a struggle with depression and anxiety fuelled by his failing health in the last two years, his wife Amanda has revealed. The 55-year-old passed away on August 5. Thorpe’s demise was announced by the England and Wales Cricket Board and now his wife has revealed in an interview to former England captain Michael Atherton that he had a long mental and physical battle with himself before he took his own life.

“Despite having a wife and two daughters whom he loved and who loved him, he did not get better,” Thorpe’s wife was quoted as saying by ‘The Times’.

“He was so unwell in recent times and he really did believe that we would be better off without him and we are devastated that he acted on that and took his own life.” A ceremony was held before the start of a match between the Farnham Cricket Club and the Chipstead Cricket Club last Saturday in memory of Thorpe, which was attended by his wife and their daughters Kitty (22) and Emma (19).

“For the past couple of years, Graham had been suffering from major depression and anxiety. This led him to make a serious attempt on his life in May 2022, which resulted in a prolonged stay in an intensive care unit,” she said.

His wife revealed that despite his work assignments, Thorpe continued to suffer.

“Despite glimpses of hope and of the old Graham, he continued to suffer from depression and anxiety, which at times got very severe. We supported him as a family and he tried many, many treatments but unfortunately none of them really seemed to work,” she said.

The report added that the family is now considering starting a foundation in his name.

Thorpe’s daughter Kitty said he was “not the same person” after a point and that he “could not see a way out”.

“He had loved life and he loved us but he just couldn’t see a way out. It was heartbreaking to see how withdrawn he had become,” she said.

“It was strange to see this person trapped in the body of Dad. That’s why we’ve been so happy that the many reflections have been about his life before this illness took over.

“I am glad that’s how everyone does remember him, rightly so, as the complete character he was,” Kitty added.

Graham Thorpe of England.

Former England batter and coach Graham Thorpe passed away on August 5.

He was hospitalised with a serious illness in 2022 and was receiving treatment. Shortly before that, he had accepted the job as head coach of Afghanistan.

England and Wales Cricket Board took to X on August 5 to announce the former cricketer’s death. “It is with great sadness that we share the news that Graham Thorpe, MBE, has passed away. There seem to be no appropriate words to describe the deep shock we feel at Graham’s death,” the board said.

The board went on to say that Thorpe’s skill was unquestioned, and his abilities and achievements across a 13-year international career brought so much happiness to his teammates and England and Surrey CCC supporters alike. “As a coach, he guided the best England Men’s talent to some incredible victories across all formats of the game,” the board said.

We will always remember Graham for his extraordinary contributions to the sport, it tweeted.

Thorpe played 100 Tests for England, scoring 16 centuries, before retiring in 2005. He started his coaching career in Australia before joining the England and Wales Cricket Board as a batting coach. He was an assistant coach for the men’s team under Trevor Bayliss and Chris Silverwood.