England have paid an emotional tribute to former batsman Graham Thorpe ahead of day two of the fifth Test against India at the Oval.
The 55-year-old died on the morning of August 4, 2024, after being struck by a train at a railway station in Surrey, with a coroner ruling the death a suicide.
The inquest at Surrey Coroner’s Court in Woking heard he had ‘spiralled into depression’ after losing his job as a batting coach in 2022, and he had tried to take his own life on another occasion.
At the Oval on Friday, on what would have been Thorpe’s 56th birthday, England paid tribute to the legendary left-hander who scored 6,744 Test runs at an average of 44.66 in 100 matches from 1993 to 2005.
The players wore headbands during the warm-up, depicting a silhouette of Thorpe and his initials. A round of applause was then conducted, with Joe Root in particular visibly emotional.
Thorpe’s widow, Amanda, and daughter, Emma, also rang the bell ahead of the second day.
Ahead of the Test, England captain Ben Stokes, who is sidelined for the match due to a shoulder injury, revealed the impact Thorpe had on a few of the players in the current squad.
‘Thorpey’s been a very influential character as a player and a coach in English cricket,’ said Stokes. ‘A few of us in that dressing room spent a lot of time with him coming through the ranks and, as we got into the main (England) team Thorpey spent a lot of years around us.’
A mural in honour of the Surrey and England legend could be seen outside the ground where he enjoyed great success with the county.
At the inquest into Thorpe’s death, Coroner Jonathan Stevens said that there were ‘failings’ in the provision of care to former cricket star in the months before he died.
The last time Thorpe was seen in person by healthcare professionals was on March 26, 2024, Stevens revealed.
After missing an appointment with the community mental health team on June 28 2024, care co-ordinator Katie Johnson spoke to Mr Thorpe’s wife on the phone, who told her he was ‘constantly asking for help to end his life’, the court heard.
Ms Johnson then spoke to Mr Thorpe who told her he ‘hadn’t been out for a while’ and ‘didn’t see the point of being here’ but had no immediate plans to act on suicidal thoughts, the inquest heard.
The coroner said appointments were offered to the cricketer but he ‘found it hard to attend these’ because of his mental health, and in his judgment Mr Stevens said ‘someone should have gone to see him to properly monitor and assess him, to do a face-to-face risk assessment and understand and address his care needs as required by the care plan’.
He added that saying ‘come see me in two weeks’ was ‘not an appropriate response’.
Writing in his Daily Mail column on Thursday, former team-mate Nasser Hussain penned: ‘It feels like yesterday. When Rob Key called, telling me he had some sad news, I instinctively knew what it was and yet, like everyone who knew Graham Thorpe, his death left me in a state of shock.
‘I was staying up in Richmond, North Yorkshire, with my family and my initial thoughts, obviously, were with his family: his wife Amanda and their kids, his dad Geoff.
‘Turning my TV on a couple of days later and watching my Sky Sports colleagues Mark Butcher and Dominic Cork fighting back tears, having to react to the news once it was public, it hit home that the game felt about Thorpey in the same way as those who played alongside him.
‘Not many that played with him had a bad word to say about him and we will see the love for him on Friday when the second day of the Oval Test becomes a Day for Thorpey with Surrey, the club he loved, staging it in his memory.’
Last year, after his funeral, we came to the ground and I met Geoff for the first time in about 30 years. When Graham and I played together on tour, Geoff and I would have a beer, but I hadn’t caught up with him for a long time, so that was an emotional reacquaintance.
