Graham Thorpe’s wife Amanda has revealed that mental illness had caused the former England cricketer to take his own life at the age of 55 after battling chronic depression.
The England and Wales Cricket (ECB) board and the Surrey Cricket Club (SCC) confirmed the death of Graham Thorpe on August 5. While the whole cricket community were mourning his death, his wife revealed that he had been suffering from mental illness for the last two years and had attempted to end his life in 2022.
Thorpe played 100 tests for England between 1993 and 2005 before working as a batting coach for the senior men’s team in Australia. He then joined New South Wales before joining the England Set-up from 2010 to 2022.
He was appointed as head coach of Afghanistan in March 2022 but couldn’t join the setup as he was admitted to hospital with a serious illness.
In an interview with The Times, his wife Amanda was quoted as saying, “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.
“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.
“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. 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.”
Thorpe’s daughter Kitty explained the reason behind the family being ready to share news of his issues with mental health. She said that they would like to raise awareness about such illnesses.
“We are not ashamed of talking about it. There is nothing to hide and it is not a stigma. We were trying to help him get better before and trying to protect him, which is why we said nothing. This is the time now to share the news, however horrible it is. We’ve wanted to be able to talk and share and we’d now like to raise awareness, too.”
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. pic.twitter.com/VMXqxVJJCh
— England and Wales Cricket Board (@ECB_cricket) August 5, 2024
During his career, Thorpe scored 6744 Test runs, with 16 Hundreds, and was also capped 82 games times in ODI. He played for Surrey between 1988 and 2005 scoring 20,000 runs for the county.
Thorpe scored a century on debut against Australia in 1993. During his period, he become one of England’s premier batters and has also featured in the 1996 and 1999 World Cups.
After his marriage, he retired from ODIs in 2002. His final appearance for England came on his 100th cap, against Bangladesh at Chester-le-Street.
