Graham Thorpe obituary: 'chameleon' batsman with 100 England caps

One of only 17 male cricketers to have won 100 Test caps for England, Graham Thorpe, who has died aged 55, was a batsman of rare "skill and tenacity", said The Guardian. 

These traits were the "pillars of all his finest innings", including the unbeaten 64 he scored to secure England's "win in the dark" over Pakistan in Karachi in 2000 – one of the Test side's "greatest victories overseas". Pakistan had never lost in this city, and they had done everything they could to keep it that way, including time-wasting on the final afternoon. In the evening gloom, without the floodlights that are now standard, Thorpe struggled to see the red ball, but he kept his calm, and "saw England home". 

A troubled man, he could be "truculent" and awkward, said The Daily Telegraph, but though his state of mind no doubt affected his play, he finished his international career, in 2005, with an aggregate of 6,744 Test runs at an average of 44.66, having struck 16 hundreds. He had also won nine trophies for Surrey in 17 years of county cricket and 82 caps for England's one-day side.

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Fearless against spin

Thorpe was born in Farnham, Surrey, and played cricket from a young age with his brothers. He was naturally right-handed, but learnt to bat left-handed, as this gave him an advantage in their garden. He played football for the England Schools Under-15 team before joining Surrey, aged 18, in 1988. He made his first class debut that year. On his Test debut, against Australia at Trent Bridge in 1993, he scored an unbeaten 114. On the subcontinent, he batted unusually well against spin: in Lahore in 2000, he scored a century against Pakistan, with just one four.

The next year, in dripping heat in Colombo, he scored 113 and 32 not out; the next best score from an England player across the team's two innings was just 26. In New Zealand, in 2002, he scored a rapid double century off 231 balls.

'Gloriously anti-establishment'

He was a "chameleon batter", said former England captain Nasser Hussain in the Daily Mail. He could adapt to whatever situation he was in. "Thorpey" was also "my best mate" on the England side in that era. We all loved him, because he was so fearless, so determined not to back down. It was that "bottle in abundance" that endeared him to fans, too.

Off the pitch, Thorpe was a supportive teammate, but "gloriously anti-establishment, habitually refusing to toe the party line". He was gutsy in his personal struggles too, which included persistent back problems and a difficult break-up from his first wife, Nicky. He married again, to Amanda, who survives him, along with his children.

The family revealed this week that Thorpe had taken his own life, said Mike Atherton in The Times, after suffering for years from severe depression and anxiety. "We are not ashamed of talking about it," said his daughter Kitty. "He had loved life and he loved us, but he just couldn't see a way out."