Picture Credit: X
Graham Thorpe, the former England cricketer, “took his own life” after a battle with chronic depression, revealed his wife, Amanda. On August 5, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and the Surrey Cricket Club (SCC), for whom Graham Thorpe played throughout his professional career, announced his untimely passing at the age of 55.
In an international career spanning 12 years, Graham Thorpe played 100 Tests for England, scoring 6,744 runs at an average of 44.66 with 16 hundreds. In his ODI career, the left-handed batter made 82 appearances, accumulating 2,380 runs at an average of 37.18 with 21 fifties.
After scoring nearly 22,000 runs for Surrey in 341 First-Class matches from 1988 to 2005, Graham Thorpe retired from professional cricket. Following that, he ventured into coaching, playing a key role for England behind the scenes in winning the ODI World Cup for the first time in 2019 at home.
Following his appointment as the head coach of Afghanistan in early 2022, he took a break from his work, but the reasons behind his decision wasn’t revealed until now.
Graham had been suffering from major depression and anxiety: Amanda reveals
While talking to the media after Graham Thorpe’s passing, his wife Amanda revealed that the 55-year-old was battling with chronic depression. In her interview to Michael Atherton from The Times, who was the former England teammate and friend of her husband, she said, “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.”
“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,” the wife of Graham Thorpe further said.
Kitty, the eldest daughter of Graham Thorpe, said, “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,” she added.
