Graham Thorpe asked me to help him die, cricketer's wife tells inquest
Thorpe, a father of four, was hit by a train at Esher railway station shortly after 8.30am on August 4 last year. He was 55.
Amanda Thorpe, his widow, told Surrey coroner's court: '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? I just wish he could have been kept safe. If you're not here, there's no hope.'
She said Thorpe had attempted to take his own life in 2022, spending three weeks unconscious in hospital.
He had been sacked as England batting coach following the team's heavy loss in the Ashes series in Australia that year. 'He came back from the tour of Australia in a terrible state — lots of things, the video, the environment, the set-up,' she said.
•
A video Thorpe had taken emerged, showing that he was told to return to his hotel room at about 6am by police in Tasmania after contravening local laws by smoking a cigar indoors during a post-series drinking session with players from both teams. It leaked to the media and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) opened an investigation.
'To be sacked after that — I think it was foreseeable that it would be really really hard on him,' Mrs Thorpe said. 'If he hadn't been on that Tour, then he wouldn't be dismissed and that was ultimately what he couldn't deal with.'
Mrs Thorpe said her husband was later offered a coaching role by the Afghan national team but was too unwell. 'He tried to do it but he was spiralling down. He signed a contract and I had to tell them he was too unwell to do that job,' she said.
By June 2024, Mrs Thorpe said, he 'had no interest in food, he wanted to hide away, totally isolated, in real crisis and despair'.
'He told me he was scared, and I told him I was scared too because I didn't know how to help him,' Mrs Thorpe said.
Father questions care
Thorpe was diagnosed with anxiety and depression in 2018, his GP said in a statement. Dr Joan Munnelly said the suicide attempt in 2022 resulted in a brain injury. Thorpe spent time in a private hospital after he was discharged from intensive care.
Geoff Thorpe, his father, said Thorpe's 'life came crashing down' when he lost his job and that he became 'more and more desperate and helpless in the last year of his life'.
Reading Geoff Thorpe's statement, the coroner said: 'You felt those who were responsible for Graham's safety and care could've done more to intervene.' Professor Nick Peirce, the ECB's chief medical officer, said in a statement that after Thorpe's employment ended in February 2022 his private health insurance cover was extended until that May, when the ECB was told of the suicide attempt.
Peirce said: 'At no point during Graham's time at ECB had there been any concern regarding a risk of self harm or intent to end life.'
• My friend Graham Thorpe: sensitive, warm and a wonderful team-mate
Referring to Mrs Thorpe's statement, the coroner said: 'You had been upstairs on the phone and Graham had gone out. You thought he had gone to walk the dog but then you saw the dog. You tried to locate him using your phone but weren't able to do that. Then you got a call from Geoff telling you, 'He's gone.''
Thorpe struck 16 Test hundreds for England, including a debut century against Australia at Trent Bridge in 1993, and represented his country 182 times in all formats.
He memorably scored the winning runs in near darkness in Karachi in December 2000 when England secured a first Test series victory in Pakistan for 39 years. He featured 82 times for the ODI side and enjoyed a 17-year career with Surrey.
He scored his final Test century under Michael Vaughan's captaincy against South Africa in December 2004 and made his final Test appearance in June 2005 before being omitted from that summer's victorious Ashes series.
Thorpe is due to be honoured during the second day of the fifth and final Test in the current series of England against India which takes place at The Oval — his home ground, on August 1. That day would have been his 56th birthday.
The inquest is due to continue until Friday.
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The Guardian
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Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
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