London, Aug 5: Former England cricketer turned coach Graham Thorpe passed away on Monday at the age of 55. His untimely demise was confirmed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) informed.
Players, coaches, cricket boards and fans condoled Thorpe's death terming it as a great loss to the cricketing world.
The left-handed middle order batter Thorpe, who could bowl right arm medium pace. He was believed to be the most complete England batter since the David Gower and Graham Gooch era.
Thorpe hit a century on debut in 1993 in his first Ashes Test and also repeated the same feat in the return Ashes series in Perth (Australia) in 1995.
Thorpe, played 100 Tests and 82 ODIs for England between 1993 and 2005 for England. He could target both pacers and spinners like his compatriot Alec Stewart and could defend with determination for hours like Mike Atherton. He was an exceptional fielder at any position in the field.
He scored runs with authority across the world and commanded respect from teammates and rivals. He served as England team's batting coach too.
He was reported to be seriously ill after he took over as Head Coach of Afghanistan men's team in 2022.
As a player, Thorpe scored 6744 Test runs, with 16 hundreds. He scored 2380runs in 82 times he was capped in one-day internationals. His ODI highest was 89. He also had two international wickets against his name in ODIs.
Graham Thorpe played county cricket for Surrey between 1988 and 2005, scoring almost 20,000 runs for the county.
