Graham Thorpe: Classy batter who helped carry England during the lean 1990s

During an era of English cricket that is most often remembered for its lean years, Graham Thorpe established himself as a player with the class and calibre to stand above the crowd.

Most England fans might happily forget the 90s entirely were it not for the emergence of Thorpe, who burst on to the scene in 1993 with an Ashes century on Test debut and bowed out with a hundred caps to his name 12 years later.

Such longevity was an achievement in itself at a time when team selection often appeared to be determined by lucky dip and the left-hander played a variety of roles during his time at the top.

Running the gamut from stylish newcomer to grizzled veteran, Thorpe – who has died aged 55 – proved himself a dependably elite performer in an environment where chaos and collapse never seemed far away.

During a period when Australian dominance was at its relentless peak, the fact that Thorpe averaged more against the Baggy Greens than his career mark (45.74 against 44.66) spoke volumes of his ability to rise to a challenge.

Off the field, the battles were often even more intense. While operating in the full glare of international sport, Thorpe struggled with depression, divorce and drinking, culminating in a tumultuous winter in 2002 that saw him walk away from the game at what could have been his peak.

As he poignantly wrote in his autobiography, Rising from the Ashes: “There came a time when I would have given back all my Test runs and Test caps just to be happy again.”

There would be a celebratory second act with England, featuring an emotional comeback century at his lifelong home ground of the Oval, and a third when he became a key figure in the international coaching set-up.

He is survived by wife Amanda and four children, Henry, Amelia, Kitty and Emma.

Born on August 1, 1969 in the market town of Farnham, little more than an hour from The Oval, Thorpe was ahead of his years on a cricket pitch and remembered being drafted by local side Wrecclesham’s Under-17s while still only eight years old.

Although he would have to wait to get a bat in his hands, he recalled taking a catch – an early indicator of the safe hands that would make him a regular in the slip cordon and bring over 600 professional catches.

He was spotted early by Surrey, who picked him up as an under-11 and never let him go, even when Brentford Football Club came calling with the offer of trials.

Despite showing enough promise to be selected by England Schools as a ball-playing link between defence and midfield, Thorpe would go on to choose the summer sport and later became one of the country’s most accomplished players of spin. Once a sweeper, always a sweeper.

Thorpe would go on to become England’s best left-handed batter since David Gower and enjoyed an unlikely torch-passing moment on his first-class debut against Leicestershire when he took Gower’s wicket with his soon-to-be phased out medium-pacers.

He was a regular feature on the nascent England ‘A’ circuit for four years before finally graduating to the senior side, initially in one-day internationals and then, unforgettably, the Test arena.

Selected at Trent Bridge for the third match of the 1993 Ashes and dismissed by the combative Merv Hughes in the first innings, he struck an undefeated 114 in the second to become England’s first debutant centurion since Frank Hayes 20 years earlier.

He was one of four players to receive his cap in Nottingham and, while he would stick around for another 99, Mark Lathwell, Mark Ilott and Martin McCague managed a total of 10 appearances. Few stayed the course as long as Thorpe, but fewer still had such an ironclad claim.

Although his conversion rate between 50 and 100 left room for improvement – he could and should have retired with considerably more than 16 tons – his quality brooked no argument.

There was a first overseas century on the notoriously menacing Gabba pitch in Perth, another in Barbados against the might of Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh and a heroic 64 not out in the fading light of Karachi to seal England’s first series win in Pakistan for 39 years.

But the demands of touring and a faltering marriage to first wife Nicky, played out in excruciating detail through the newspapers, saw him retire from ODIs in 2002 before committing, then withdrawing, from that winter’s tour of Australia.

He was able to find enough peace to regain his place for the final Test against South Africa, greeted as a returning hero as he made 124 in front of an adoring South London crowd.

Thorpe’s final act as a player did not extend as far as the fabled 2005 Ashes – he was dropped for the series in favour of Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen and retired thereafter – but by then he had already become just the eighth Englishman to reach 100 Test caps, securing a proud legacy along the way.

He stayed in the game with a move to New South Wales, where he worked with a young Steve Smith and David Warner, and returned to work with England between 2010 and 2022.

Thorpe took charge of his country in the familiar surroundings of the Sydney Cricket Ground after Chris Silverwood was laid low by coronavirus, securing a nailbiting draw to avoid a seemingly inevitable whitewash.

His final act with the team was to film an early hours get together between the two sides that ended with a call to the police and was leaked to the media.

It was a reminder that, in addition to being brilliant with bat in hand, Thorpe had always been one of England’s most reassuringly human athletes.