[Watch] England players and fans honor Graham Thorpe before start of 1st Test vs Sri Lanka in Manchester
England players and the crowd in Manchester honored former cricketer Graham Thorpe before the start of play on Day 1 of the opening Test against Sri Lanka on August 21. The big screen in the stadium had a video of Thorpe celebrating his contributions to English cricket shown after he tragically died on August 4.
The England players on the ground and the support staff in the dressing room paid their tribute to one of their all-time legendary cricketers. Thorpe scored over 9,000 runs in his illustrious international career from the early 1990s to the mid-2000s with 16 centuries.
Here is a video of the England players and the Manchester crowd honoring Graham Thorpe before the start of the opening Test:
Graham Thorpe had been suffering from serious illness since 2022 and took his own life after suffering from mental issues like anxiety and depression. Following his illustrious playing career, the Surrey cricketer was England's batting and assistant coach at different stages from 2013 until the 2021-22 Ashes.
The England team will also wear black armbands on Day 1 of the first Sri Lanka test as a mark of respect to the late Graham Thorpe.
"He had a huge influence on my career" - Joe Root on Graham Thorpe
England's ace batter Joe Root recently thanked Graham Thorpe for the massive influence on his career.
Root is currently England's second leading-run scorer in Tests with 12,027 runs behind only Alastair Cook. The list also has Thorpe as England's 15th leading run-getter in the red-ball format with 6,744 runs.
Root told Sky Sports on the eve of the first Test against Sri Lanka:
"A lot of my interactions with Graham and where his biggest influences came were as a coach when he started the second phase of his career. It was quite surreal first getting to meet someone of his stature and talking about the game. I worked very closely with him for the next 12 years or so. He had a huge influence on my career and arguably without his backing and pushing my case, I may not have had the career I've had."
Thorpe was also a giant in the domestic circuit for Surrey and finished his overall career with almost 33,000 runs across first-class, List-A, and T20 cricket. He was also part of the England support staff during their 2019 ODI World Cup triumph.