Throughout his taking part in profession, Thorpe scored 6744 Take a look at runs, with 16 a whole lot, and was additionally capped 82 occasions in one-day internationals. He performed for Surrey between 1988 and 2005, scoring virtually 20,000 runs for the county.
”It’s with nice disappointment that we share the information that Graham Thorpe, MBE, has handed away,” the ECB mentioned in a press release. ”There appear to be no applicable phrases to explain the deep shock we really feel at Graham’s loss of life.
”Multiple of England’s finest-ever batters, he was a beloved member of the cricket household and revered by followers everywhere in the world. His ability was unquestioned, and his skills and achievements throughout a 13-year worldwide profession introduced a lot happiness to his teammates and England and Surrey CCC supporters alike. Later, as a coach, he guided the perfect England Males’s expertise to some unbelievable victories throughout all codecs of the sport.
”The cricket world is in mourning right now. Our hearts exit to his spouse Amanda, his youngsters, father Geoff, and all of his household and pals throughout this unimaginably troublesome time. We are going to at all times keep in mind Graham for his extraordinary contributions to the game.”
Thorpe joined the ECB in 2010 as lead batting coach, and was a part of the backroom workforce that oversaw England’s 2019 Males’s World Cup success. He went on to work as assistant coach to Chris Silverwood, though he was amongst numerous the teaching workers to depart within the wake of the 2021-22 Ashes.
He had been attributable to take cost of Afghanistan, after being appointed in March 2022, however was unable to fulfil the position.
After Thorpe was hospitalised in Could of that 12 months, England’s newly appointed Take a look at captain Ben Stokes wore a shirt with Thorpe’s identify and England cap quantity on the again for the toss at his first match in cost, towards New Zealand at Lord’s.
“Graham is among the nice sons of Surrey and there may be an amazing disappointment that he won’t stroll by the gates of the Oval once more,” Oli Slipper, Surrey’s chair, mentioned. “He’s a legend of Surrey and introduced nice pleasure to the membership carrying each the Three Feathers and the Three Lions.
“He made excellent contributions to the membership as a cricketer, and as a person, and he shall be so sorely missed.”
Steve Elworthy, Surrey chief government, added: “Everybody related to the membership is devastated by the tragic information of Graham’s passing. He achieved exceptional feats for membership and nation and was a hero to so many cricket followers.
“Our ideas and condolences are with Graham’s household and pals, to whom we are going to supply any assist that we’re capable of. We ask that everybody respects the privateness of the household at this extremely troublesome time.”
A tricky, counterattacking batter, Thorpe scored a century on debut towards Australia at Trent Bridge in 1993. He went on to turn out to be one England’s premier Take a look at batters throughout the Nineties and early 2000s, in addition to a dependable one-day accumulator who featured on the 1996 and 1999 World Cups.
His closing England look was the event of his one centesimal cap, towards Bangladesh at Chester-le-Avenue, with the emergence of Kevin Pietersen resulting in Thorpe being dropped for the 2005 Ashes.
Thorpe retired from taking part in that summer season, and moved into teaching initially with New South Wales in Australia – the place he labored with younger batters Steven Smith and David Warner – earlier than returning to Surrey as batting coach. He subsequently coached the Lions throughout greater than a decade as a part of the ECB’s England set-up.
