Graham Thorpe "took his own life", confirms England batter's family

London: Former England batter Graham Thorpe died by suicide following a long battle with depression and anxiety, confirmed his family in a newspaper interview.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) last week announced that Thorpe, one of the finest batters from England, had died at the age of 55. His wife and daughters have confirmed to his long-time teammate Michael Atherton in an interview that the batter died by suicide.

Thorpe had not been involved with the sport since being removed as one of the assistant coaches after England's Ashes 2021-22 debacle, where they lost 4-0 to Australia in Australia.

He was at one point set to become Afghanistan's head coach but never did after an attempt at taking his own life during May 2022. At that time, he was said to be "seriously ill" in hospital.

“For the past couple of years, Graham had been suffering from major depression and anxiety,” Amanda, Thorpe’s wife, told the Times as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.

"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 famous 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,” said Amanda.

Amanda described Thorpe as a "free spirit" and recalled her favorite memory of him.

"He had his own mind and his own way of going about things. My favorite memory of him is in Barbados, which he loved, enjoying a rum punch and listening to his favorite reggae after a swim... He was funny and he made We all laugh so much,” she concluded.

Thorpe made his international debut in 1993 and was the mainstay of the English batting throughout the late 90s and early 2000s. The southpaw played 100 Tests and scored 6744 runs at an average of 44.66, with 16 hundreds and 39 fifties to his name. His highest score was 200*.

In ODIs, the gritty batter scored 2380 runs at an average of 37.18 with 21 fifties. He appeared at two ICC Men's Cricket World Cups, scoring 254 runs in the 1996 edition in Sri Lanka and then contributing 125 runs three years later at the event in England, Netherlands, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

In the ICC batting rankings, Thorpe peaked at No.3 in Tests ahead of England's tour of the West Indies in 1998. His peak in the ODI rankings was No.10, the release added.

After retiring from cricket in 2005, Thorpe held coaching positions with New South Wales, Surrey and England Men's side.

The legendary player was involved with the England setup as a coach for the majority of the 2010s and was part of the coaching hierarchy in the role of batting coach that netted the European side of the 2019 World Cup on home soil in thrilling fashion.

Thorpe was recently England's assistant coach up until the 2021/22 Ashes tour of Australia. He was subsequently appointed as Afghanistan's head coach in March 2022, but couldn't take up the position due to his illness.