{"id":308777,"date":"2025-11-26T00:16:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T00:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/308777\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T00:16:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T00:16:07","slug":"graham-thorpes-widow-says-he-would-be-alive-if-ecb-had-offered-more-support-cricket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/308777\/","title":{"rendered":"Graham Thorpe\u2019s widow says he would be alive if ECB had offered more support | Cricket"},"content":{"rendered":"

Graham Thorpe\u2019s widow believes that he would still be alive if there had been more support from the England and Wales Cricket<\/a> Board after he left his coaching role with the governing body.<\/p>\n

Thorpe \u2013 one of the most respected batters of his generation and England\u2019s assistant coach as recently as 2021 \u2013 killed himself in August last year following a long battle with anxiety and depression.<\/p>\n

In July 2025 an inquest at Surrey coroner\u2019s court<\/a> in Woking was told that Thorpe had \u201cspiralled into depression\u201d after losing his job as a batting coach in 2022, and he had tried to kill himself on another occasion. The coroner, Jonathan Stevens, said there were \u201cfailings\u201d in the provision of care to Thorpe by health professionals in the months before he died, and recorded a conclusion of suicide.<\/p>\n

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Thorpe had been having therapy for his mental health for 18 months before he left the ECB<\/a>. Stevens noted the organisation had \u201cfunded treatment, hospital stays and extended his health treatment insurance\u201d after his departure in February 2022 in the wake of England\u2019s last Ashes tour in Australia, which they lost 4-0.<\/p>\n

His widow, Amanda, believes more could have been done to help him feel better connected during that period of transition. She told TalkSport that if the \u201centire rug of his cricketing career had not been pulled from under him so completely \u2026 it is really clear to me that he would still be alive, so it would have made all the difference\u201d.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cIt is hindsight \u2013 and no one has got a crystal ball \u2013 but it was just too much \u2013 the cliff, the whole mental breakdown of \u2018I am no longer in that family\u2019. If he had had just a little bit of the support framework there to lean on a bit to just transition a bit more, it would have made all the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amanda Thorpe also felt that the remote support offered was \u201cwoeful\u201d and did not go far enough. \u201cAs he went through these sessions, it was clear that he wasn\u2019t coping. He was getting worse. We really did ask for help. I knew he needed more help than that and it wasn\u2019t forthcoming.\u201d<\/p>\n

An ECB spokesperson said: \u201cGraham was not only one of England\u2019s greatest cricketers, but also a deeply admired and much loved person. His loss has been felt deeply across the cricketing community and far beyond and our thoughts and heartfelt sympathies remain with his wife Amanda, his children and all those who loved him.<\/p>\n

\u201cGraham\u2019s passing is a heartbreaking reminder of the challenges many face with mental health. His death was examined by a coroner; the inquest was held earlier this year with full support from the ECB. We have met with Amanda to discuss her concerns and have been in regular contact with her and the wider family.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans<\/a> can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org<\/a> or jo@samaritans.ie<\/a>. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline<\/a> on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org<\/a>, or text HOME<\/a> to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline<\/a> is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Graham Thorpe\u2019s widow believes that he would still be alive if there had been more support from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-308777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}