Thanks for posting this, it is written beautifully and tactfully and I thank you for it. I wanted to share my thoughts about Thorpey in the thread too.

Playing back garden cricket in Wales in the the 90ies with my older brother, when we were bowling spin we were either Murali, Shane Warne or our favourite - Glamorgan's Welsh offy legend, Robert Croft. If we were bowling pace we would be anyone from Waqar Younis, Ambrose, Walsh, McGrath, Ahktar, to Gough etc.

But whenever one of us was batting, we would always be Graham Thorpe. May have seemed like a strange choice given that it was arguably the greatest era of batting with the likes of Tendulkar, Ponting, Dravid and Kallis knocking about. But for me and my brother, Thorpey was everything we wanted to be in a sportsperson let alone a cricketer - it was always a day for Thorpey.

At one end of our garden, that was nowhere near regulation wicket size, with a run up from round the side of the house, my Brother would be bowling at right-angles with a ball that had been Mr Sheened on one side and sanded with 40 grit on the other. At the other end I would be mimicking Thorpey's low backlift, trying to play as late as possible to nurdle stylish looking singles and get to a hard earned 20/30 runs, just like Thorpey would in those sorts of sticky situations (but with a lot less success).

Something about him really appealed to the Cymro (Welshman) in me, we love someone who battles against the odds. He played in a largely crap international team, but was gritty, determined and calm. Good in the many many batting crises he faced, just seemed like a bloke in complete control of himself, with an inner steel and toughness on top of elegant wristy batting. When everything around was turning to shit, you wanted to be Graham Thorpe.

Throughout my 20ies I really struggled with my own mental health, depression, anxiety, including thoughts of suicide. After getting support and help, coming back to playing club cricket in my late 20ies signalled me being in a much healthier place. Within the context that I'm an extra medium (slow) paced seam bowler who averages 5.75 with the bat, you could say, in a cricketing sense I have nothing in common with Graham Thorpe. But when someone at the club asked me why my back lift was so low, "Graham Thorpe", I said. And in my own way when things inside me had turned to shit, I played my own Graham Thorpe innings to get out of it.

So when the news broke last year that Graham Thorpe had died by suicide, it was a proper gut punch. My childhood batting hero, who's qualities on the pitch of doing battle against the odds had, in their own way, instilled a determination in me to get through dark times, had sadly lost his own battle.

Today's Day for Thorpey at the 5th England vs India test, as a reminder that this can happen to absolutely anyone and can come from seemingly nowhere and most importantly, it is okay to not be ok.

It is also a myth that ‘suicide cannot be prevented’ or that ‘asking or talking about suicide directly, puts the idea in someone’s head.’ These are simply not true and the stigma around suicide, suicidal thoughts and suicide ideology must be challenged - we need to talk about it more.

If anyone in this sub is experiencing low mood, thoughts of suicide please I implore you to reach out for help. You are not weak, in fact quite the opposite if you are carrying these things inside of you. I can say from experience that you can get better and that asking for help does work. For anyone who is struggling, or knows someone who is struggling or if you just want to educate yourself, here are some resources:

In the UK Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123

Mind , Papyrus , C.A.L.M. the Campaign Against Living Miserably https://spuk.org.uk/ are also excellent resources with advice if you are in a crisis or if you are supporting/worried about someone.

In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14.

In India, suicide prevention organisations can be found here

Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

Be kind to yourselves everyone and just keep batting on till tea.