The Graham Thorpe Tragedy and How Covid Contributed to Mental Decline

The news of Graham Thorpe’s untimely death at the age of 55 last Sunday prompted an outpouring of love and respect for one of English cricket’s greatest batsmen and most popular figures.

The confirmation, from his devastated family, that he committed suicide added a further layer of tragedy. More details will emerge at an inquest in Woking which begins on Tuesday, but it is known that he died after being hit by a train in Surrey.

Thorpe had attempted to take his own life in May 2022, just four months after the end of his last involvement with English cricket, as assistant coach of the national men’s team during an Ashes tour of Australia. Subsequently, details of his mental health problems were not made public, with his family filing a request for privacy, which was honored.

In a moving interview with The TimesThorpe’s wife Amanda said: “Over the past few years Graham has suffered from severe depression and anxiety.”

She added: “Mental illness is a real illness and can affect anyone. Despite having a wife and two daughters who he loved and who loved him, he didn’t get better.

“He had been so ill recently and he truly believed that we would be better off without him. We are devastated that he responded to that and took his own life.”

According to his 22-year-old daughter Kitty, Thorpe’s family wants to “raise awareness” of the battles he fought, but also ensure that Thorpe is not defined by them. “It was heartbreaking to see how withdrawn he had become,” she said. “He wasn’t the same person. It was strange to see this person trapped in Dad’s body.”

The tributes to Thorpe have reminded us what a warm, wonderful character he was. They have also referred to the struggles he endured after the failure of his first marriage to Nicola, with whom he had the first two of his four children. He once said: “There came a time when I would have given up all my Test runs and Test caps to be happy again”. He took breaks from the game, notably in 2003, when he told of months spent at home alone with the curtains drawn, drinking and smoking.

Thorpe loved coaching Amanda and was a mentor to England greats such as Joe Root and Ben Stokes, who paid tribute this week.

He was assistant coach of England in 2019, when they won their first Men’s One-Day International World Cup. But it was no secret that Thorpe, who had always had an anti-establishment streak, struggled with lockdown and the biosecure bubbles in which cricket was played during the pandemic. When Britain briefly emerged from the first lockdown in the summer of 2020, players and staff were holed up in the Rose Bowl in Southampton, and then Old Trafford in Manchester, for matches that tested their love of the game but allowed English cricket to “keep the lights on”, according to then-chief executive Tom Harrison. That winter, there were bubble-bound tours to South Africa, India and Sri Lanka.

By the time England travelled to Australia, many were at their wits’ end. No longer in full lockdown, they had to quarantine on arrival in Brisbane for the first Test and were routinely subjected to invasive testing. Thorpe was put in charge of the team for the fourth Test in Sydney when Chris Silverwood tested positive.

“It’s going to be an unnecessary distraction,” Thorpe said of the Covid protocols. “I understand it, Australia are in a very different situation. I think cricket can find a way around it. England have played a lot of cricket as well. A lot of our players have been in these circumstances and this environment for a while. It’s also very important to look after their mental state.

“That’s always been in the back of the mind (of the players)… The constant testing, day in, day out, is a distraction.”

The Sydney Test was the only one England did not lose on that tour. His instructions to the players were: “go to the beach and have a swim”. Asked about his training sessions, he said: “I’ve had to let them go a bit. Enjoy what they’re doing. Have fun. Get that tension out of your body.”

Sydney was his penultimate Test with England. In Hobart, England were thrashed, completing a disgraceful tour. As the sun rose the following morning, at the end of a drinking bout between the two sides, Thorpe lit a cigar in the team hotel, prompting the police. When they arrived, Thorpe filmed them “just for the lawyers”. He had sent the video to only a few close friends, but it ended up on the website of the Sydney Morning Herald. Thorpe was mortified and contacted the players individually to apologise for his part in the negative publicity at the end of a long, joyless tour.

As the sporting world was questioned on every level, the incident sealed Thorpe’s fate. He was the third CEO to be sacked in three days: first chief executive Ashley Giles, then Silverwood and finally Thorpe.

Thorpe, a 30-year veteran of the cutthroat world of Ashes cricket, is said to be sympathetic. He was ousted as head coach at Middlesex by Richard Johnson before being appointed Afghanistan head coach in late March 2022. He never took the job, following his first attempt on his life.

The English cricket machine immediately swung into action to support one of its favourite sons. He was cared for by the NHS for weeks, and then further mental health support was sought with the help of the Professional Cricketers’ Association, his county Surrey, the charity Sporting Chance and more local NHS resources.

Amanda said that through it all there were “glimmers of hope and of the old Graham”. His generation of Surrey players, who enjoyed so much success together at the turn of the century, are still close and many are in regular contact with him and his family. Thorpe came to the Oval, where his good mate Alec Stewart is still director of cricket, to help out with a few coaching sessions when he was well enough and in November 2022 he attended a dinner at the Pavilion to celebrate the chairmanship of old family friend Richard Thompson, who moved from Surrey to the ECB. Thompson is said to be a pillar of strength for Thorpe and his family in both roles.

“We have supported him as a family and he has tried so many treatments, but unfortunately none of them really seemed to work,” Amanda said.

Help is available from the Samaritans. Contact them directly via their 24 hour helpline, call free on any phone number: 116 123

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