Former England cricketer Graham Thorpe died a week ago, on August 5. England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) had confirmed the development while it was reported that Thorpe passed away due to prolonged illness. However, in a shocking revelation, his wife Amanda has stated that Graham took his own life.
Graham Thorpe's former teammate Mike Atherton, in his column for The Times, spoke to Amanda who confirmed that the former cricketer believed that his family would be better off without him and acted on that. "He (Thorpe) 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," she said.
Atherton, in his column, stated that Thorpe's family contacted him through Alec Stewart and Graham's closest friend Jeff Banks as they wanted to express their gratitude to the well-wishers and share some more information around his mental health after a silence of two years.
"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," Amanda stated further.
For the unversed, Graham Thorpe played 100 Test matches for England between 1993 and 2005 and also worked as the batting coach of the senior men's team. He amassed 6744 runs in the longest format with 16 tons to his name while he featured in 82 ODIs 2380 at an average of 37.18. Thorpe played for Surrey at the domestic level amassing more than 20,000 runs during his illustrious career.
