Former England batter Graham Thorpe passes away at 55
London, Aug 5: Former England and Surrey batter Graham Thorpe has died aged 55 after battling a "serious illness" since 2022, the country's cricket board announced on Monday.
Considered one of the finest batters of his generation, Thorpe was hospitalised shortly after being named the head coach of Afghanistan in 2022 but the details of his medical condition are not known.
He is survived by his wife Amanda and four children, Henry, Amelia, Kitty and Emma.
"It is with great sadness that the ECB shares the news that Graham Thorpe, MBE, has passed away," ECB said in a statement, without giving the exact cause of his death.
"There seem to be no appropriate words to describe the deep shock we feel at Graham's death. More than one of England's finest ever batters, he was a beloved member of the cricket family and revered by fans all over the world," the statement read.
Thorpe began his Test career in 1993 with an Ashes century and repeated the feat on the return tour, in Perth in February 1995.
The left-hander was also instrumental in England's back-to-back series wins in Pakistan and Sri Lanka during the 2000-01 season.
A lynch-pin of England's middle order, he went on to play 100 Tests for England between 1993 and 2005 and averaged 44.66 with 16 centuries.
He also represented the Three Lions in 82 ODIs, collecting 2830 runs at an average of 37.18.
Thorpe enjoyed success at the county level as well. He was picked at the under-11 level by Surrey and played for them for 17 years, scoring close to 20,000 runs for the team.
"Graham is one of the great sons of Surrey and there is an overwhelming sadness that he will not walk through the gates of the Oval again. He is a legend of Surrey and brought great pride to the Club wearing both the Three Feathers and the Three Lions.
"He made outstanding contributions to the Club as a cricketer, and as a man, and he will be so sorely missed," said Oli Slipper, Chair at Surrey CCC.
Following his playing career, Thorpe took to coaching.
He started his coaching career in Australia, where he worked with the likes of Steve Smith and David Warner at New South Wales. He then joined the England national team set up as a batting coach in 2010.
He served as an assistant coach for the England men's team under Trevor Bayliss and Chris Silverwood but was axed after the Test side suffered a 0-4 whitewash in the 2021–22 Ashes series Down Under.
He was then appointed the head coach of Afghanistan in March 2022 but fell ill and couldn't take up the role.
"Graham Thorpe has recently fallen seriously ill and is currently in hospital receiving treatment," The Professional Cricketers' Association said at the time.
"His prognosis is unclear at this stage and we ask for privacy for him and his family at this time. Our thoughts are with Graham and his family."
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Duleep Trophy: Pacers shine as India B beat India A by 76 runs
Bengaluru, Sep 8: KL Rahul's gumption, which helped him pile a patient fifty, found no resonance among his colleagues as India B pacers led by Yash Dayal pushed India A to a 76-run defeat on the fourth and final day of their Duleep Trophy match here on Sunday.
Chasing 275, India A were bundled out for 198 in their second innings as left-arm seamer Dayal (3/50), with able support from his colleagues Mukesh Kumar (2/50) and Navdeep Saini (2/41), led the India B attack.
Rahul top-scored for 'A' with a 51.
In the first session of the day, India B made 184 all out in their second essay to muster a handy overall lead of 274.
The India A chase began on a shaky note as Mayank Agarwal departed in the second over itself, wafting Dayal away from his body to Nitish Kumar Reddy, who made a wonderful diving catch at second slip.
That brought Riyan Parag to the middle and the right-hander followed the path set on Saturday by Rishabh Pant and Sarfaraz Khan.
Parag took on the bowlers and pacer Mukesh bore the brunt of his aggression, getting smoked for two sixes and the second maximum touched the roof of the Chinnaswamy Stadium over the mid-wicket region.
Parag added 48 runs for the second with a rather subdued Shubman Gill, who was dropped by Nitish Reddy at slips off Mukesh on 16, and 31 came off the former's bat in just 18 balls.
But the approach was tough to sustain considering the kind of assistance the bowlers were getting here, and soon his massive hoick off Dayal took an edge off Parag's bat en route to stumper Rishabh Pant.
Gill (21) departed soon, falling to Saini for the second time in the match and on this occasion, he edged the pacer to Pant.
Dhruv Jurel poked Dayal well outside off-stump to Yashasvi Jaiswal at gully, as India batters perished to a combination of bowlers' persistence on that channel and their own carelessness.
They took the lunch at a queasy 76 for four that soon transpired into 99 for six after the dismissal of Shivam Dube and Tanush Kotian, an hour into the lunch.
However, Rahul batted out 180 minutes 121 balls and milked 42 runs for the seventh wicket with Kuldeep Yadav to delay the inevitable.
The standout shot in an otherwise dour innings was a whistling on drive off Mukesh that fetched him a boundary.
But Mukesh had his revenge soon when Rahul feathered a cut off him to Pant, who completed five catches in this innings, soon after reaching his fifty with a single off Saini.
It effectively signalled the end of the road of for India A, though Akash Deep (43, 42b, 3x4, 4x6) gave a few moments of fun with a cavalier innings.
But beyond the entertainment value, it always was a case of when more than if.
Earlier, resuming from their overnight score of 150 for six India B could only 34 runs more to the total before getting bundled out.
Pacer Akash, whom Sarfaraz Khan carted around for five fours in a row the previous day, found his mojo to add the scalps of Washington Sundar and Saini to complete a five-wicket haul (5/56).
The spell will keep his name floating among the contenders when the selectors sit together soon to pick up squad for two-match Test series against Bangladesh.
