An inquest into the death of former England batsman Graham Thorpe that began on July 23 has revealed details of the tragedy that ended with Thorpe found dead after being hit by a train last August. The 55-year-old took his own life, his wife had revealed on Monday in an interview with Wisden Cricketers Almanack. Now, the inquest has opened with tragic details of how a leaked Ashes drinking video and his subsequent loss of the job of England’s assistant coach acerbated the mental health crisis.
Thorpe, who played 100 Tests for England and joined as the assistant coach in 2010, was first diagnosed with anxiety and depression in 2018 but his mental health worsened a lot during the Covid-19 pandemic and the developments surrounding England’s 4-0 loss in Australia in 2021-22.
What was the leaked video incident?
The Surrey Coroner’s court heard on July 23rd that Thorpe was “distraught, horrified, ashamed, terrified” when a late-night video of a post-series drinking episode between a few England and Australian cricketers that he had shared with some friends had leaked. Thorpe had filmed police officers intervening in the drinking session at a pub after complaints. The drinking party of Joe Root, England’s captain then, James Anderson, and Australia’s Nathan Lyon, Travis Head, and Alex Carey was halted by police. Thorpe had later apologised for the video he had taken that was leaked to all the players.
In a statement, Thorpe’s wife Amanda told the coroner’s court that he “apologised personally to everyone” but was “very stressed” by an incident that was “blown out of proportion”. She said that he had got through a previous bout of depression without it affecting his work but that he found the Covid-19 lockdown “very difficult” and that England’s tour to India had been “tough” for him and that he was already struggling with anxiety and experiencing difficulty sleeping. In March 2021, he had sought help from England & Wales Cricket board and the decision to take him to Australia, with daily Covid testing and other stringent protocols, was now being questioned.
Both Amanda and Thorpe’s father, Geoff, did not think that he should have gone on that tour. It was acknowledged, however, that Thorpe would also have found it hard to stay at home. “Really thinking about it… because he went on that tour, he was dismissed,” the wife Amanda was reported as saying by Telegraph. “He probably had an option to say, ‘I don’t want to go’. [But] there’s a big difference between saying, ‘Do you want to go?’ to ‘We think you ought not to go’. I think that would have made a big difference. I don’t think he realised how ill he was. He wishes he hadn’t gone because of all that happened after.”
What happened after the Ashes tour and leaked video?
Thorpe was sacked after the series loss by the ECB. “To be sacked after that, I think it was foreseeable that it would be really hard on him. It was harder than we could have known,” said Amanda. “He came back from the tour of Australia in such a terrible state. It was down to lots of things; the video, the whole environment.”
In his statement to Coroner’s Court, Thorpe’s father Geoff said that the leaked video incident in Australia had caused “catastrophic damage” and that his life “came crashing down when his employment to the ECB was terminated”. Thorpe “felt a failure, spiralled into depression” and suffered anxiety, insomnia, loss of appetite, guilt, feeling a burden and not wanting to meet people.
Did he attempt to take his own life before?
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His family had said that Thorpe had made a first attempt on his life on April 30, 2022, less than three months after losing his England job. The court heard that he was left unconscious for three weeks and was in intensive care for around five weeks. He reportedly continue to grapple with suicidal thoughts – despite attempts from family and mental-health professionals.
“He was really suffering – it was awful to see – he just felt that no one could help him,” Amanda told the coroner’s court. “He told me he was scared and I told him I was scared to. I tried to reach out to everyone I thought. The weeks leading up to his death, he told me he doesn’t want to be here any more. He asked me to help him end his life. He said he wants to go to Switzerland. I was in turmoil. Then we get a letter for an appointment [with the medical team] in a month’s time. How ill do you have to be?”
What did the ECB say to the coroner’s court?
Professor Nick Pearce, chief medical officer at the ECB, said that a variety of mental help and support was provided, citing their partnership with Changing Minds, a provider of clinical sports psychologists. He revealed that Thorpe had been getting support from 2019 from Changing Minds.
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He also said in a statement that there had been “no indication that Graham was at risk of immediate self harm” during the India tour in 2020-21. That a mental-health assessment report was conducted before the 2021-22 tour of Australia along with Thorpe and director of cricket Ashley Giles.
Prof Pearce also spoke about the job termination. “It is a common occurrence in elite sport for performance-related decisions to result in a rapid turnaround of staff”. He also pointed out that Giles and head coach Chris Silverwood also lost their jobs, describing Thorpe’s first suicide attempt as “devastating and a complete shock to everyone who had been involved in his care”.
What did his wife tell in the Wisden interview?
This is what Amanda said: “He was kind and funny, and became a good after-dinner speaker, despite being a bit shy. He would do these hilarious accents, and I remember thinking he could have been a stand-up comic. Not everyone saw that side of him but that’s the Graham I knew. I’d rather have been married to him for 20 years than to someone boring for 40. Life was never dull. It was always: what rule are you going to break next?
“…It’s hard trying to square the witty, happy, independent Graham with the one who ended up taking his own life after two and a half awful years of anxiety and depression. Sure, he hadn’t been in a good place when we first met (after his divorce), and he could get anxious, especially before heading off on tour. But nothing out of the ordinary. Did I ever see him as someone who could do something so drastic? Never. Not for one minute … He tried many therapies and medications — he tried so hard to beat it. But in the end I feel something became wrong with the way Graham’s brain was wired — a chemical imbalance. He also felt immense shame about how he was, but of course there should be no stigma to suffering as he did.”
What’s next?
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The inquest will continue to hear more details. On a related aside, a celebratory ‘Day for Thorpey’ will be held on the second day of the fifth Test between India and England at the Oval stadium in London on what would have been his 56th birthday. Thorpe’s family, his wife Amanda and daughters Kitty and Emma, are raising money for mental health charity Mind.
“Sometimes us chaps are a little bit macho – think we can cope, in fact we can’t,” said his father Geoff.
