Former England cricketer Graham Thorpe, who passed away at 55 on August 5, had finally lost his long and hard battle with anxiety and depression. Thorpe was a big name in English cricket, having played 100 Test matches and 82 ODIs. His untimely death has shocked the cricketing world and cast a somber shadow over the sport.
In an interview with The Times, Thorpe’s wife, Amanda, has now given a profound insight into her husband’s struggles. She said Thorpe had tried to kill himself once before in May 2022 and needed a very long time in the intensive care unit. Over the years, his mental health deteriorated, slowly but surely, despite the love and support of his wife and two daughters.
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Amanda shared the gut-wrenching reality of Graham Thorpe’s condition: “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 really believed that we would be better off without him. We are devastated that he acted on that belief and took his own life. For the past couple of years, Graham had suffered from major depression and anxiety.”.
“They want to heighten the awareness of the illness that took him, but also want to emphasise that his life should not be defined by that. There was far, far more to him than that.”
Graham Thorpe’s family have shared their memories of the great man in a moving piece in today’s… pic.twitter.com/5Tr942Kynx
— Surrey Cricket (@surreycricket) August 12, 2024
Thorpe’s career got off to a remarkable start when he debuted against Australia in Manchester on 19 May 1993. Making his Test debut against the Aussies during the Ashes in Nottingham on July 1, 1993, he scored a nimble century [114*] in the second innings, which was a very early sign of his talent. For several years now, Thorpe has provided a stable middle order with the bat, scoring 6,744 runs and 16 centuries in Test cricket, and 2,380 runs with 51 half-centuries in ODIs.
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Besides his international exploits, Thorpe did a lot for Surrey, having scored more than 20,000 runs for the team. He turned to coaching after retirement and was engaged by the Afghanistan Cricket Team as recently as 2022. His death, therefore, is one pointer to silent battles many have to face, even those celebrated in the public eye.
