Why today?Such a great batsman. Tragic that he only played 96 Tests
The best English batsman of his generation.
Okay I'll remember this rule next time someone posts a thread about Bradman.Can't wait for GIMH's next thread about how the next great English wicketkeeper batsmen is a kid named James Foster as apparently he has woken up thinking it is 2004 with his threads today.
Absolute tosh.Foster was better than Gilchrist, everyone knows that.
Harsh on Butch.I'd rank the batsman of his era like this
Thorpe > Stewart > Atherton > Smith > Hussain > Hick > Butcher > Ramprakash > Crawley
Only played 96 I'm afraidWhen I think of Thorpe, the first thing that comes to my mind is a youtube video in which Waqar castled his off-stump with a yorker in 2001 series.
100 tests, nearly 7000 runs. Quality player.
So good.Only played 96 I'm afraid
It's quite incredible the runs he managed to make playing in a dire team like England.Terrific batsman Graham Thorpe, such a shame he so often came back the next day and was out straight away. Presumably he had a concentration issue - without which I'm sure he would comfortably have averaged 50+
Thorpe's success as a batsman is a minor miracle given his circumstances and temperment.Under the Lid: Graham Thorpe
....Michael Atherton said in his autobiography that “of all the players I played with, [Thorpe] was the one whose state of mind most affected his play. A happy, contented Thorpe is a world-class player, his presence beneficial to any team. If something off the field is eating away at him, he cannot put it to the back of his mind and concentrate on his cricket.”
Thorpe’s transformation began in 2002 when the collapse of his marriage brought about another of those absences from the England side. Previously, he’d left the trip to the Caribbean early in 1999, declined to visit South Africa later that year due to the rigours of touring life, and flown home halfway through a tour of India in 2001. In the summer of 2002 he’d play just the first four of seven Tests, retire from ODIs, then take an indefinite break from all cricket due to off-field issues.
“When I had my divorce I got opened up,” he says. “All the skeletons in the cupboard came out, and there were a few there. As things became public it was tough and I was hurt, I was drinking lots and I was insular, bitter and lonely. So to come through that and to remarry and have another child, I feel very blessed that I can work and enjoy myself. That’s part of life. We grow and change and embrace those changes. That was a process that needed to happen for me to become the relaxed guy I am today. All the circumstances around my divorce – it being so public – contributed to that. I desperately needed that break from the game.”
Read more at Under The Lid: Graham Thorpe | Exclusive Interview | All Out Cricket
Cricinfo says 100, it was Nasser Hussain who played 96 tests.Only played 96 I'm afraid
Creepy was a real stylist and could look superb against spin. He wasn't a poor player of quick bowling but he wasn't good on the off side and if the oppo had quality pace bowlers who could target his off stump relentlessly he seldom looked happy - has a really poor record against West Indies and South Africa and struggled against Australia tooCrawley was a criminally underrated bat IMO