Thorpe retires

After being overlooked for the Ashes, Graham Thorpe, among England's best batsmen in the recent past, has announced his retirement from international cricket. The impending arrival of a baby apparently speeded up his decision, although I'm absolutely sure that he wasnt expecting to be picked again. The fact that he will turn out for Surrey until the end of the season and the possibility of him playing for NSW means that he will not be joining the 'retired from all forms of cricket, including book cricket' club.

He goes out on exactly hundred tests, the only one to do that so far. As of now, he is among England's top 10 rungetters in tests. He most certainly underachieved in one-dayers, not even touching the 2500 mark. Then again, England hardly played enough one-day cricket in the 1990s. He would have been a terrific one-day player, thats for sure.

Oliver Brett, Rob Smyth and Steven Lynch celebrate having watched England's reliable middle-order batsman over the last decade or so.

Given that it was highly unlikely that the selectors would dump Pietersen or Bell after a couple of failures, the writing was pretty much on the wall. Personally, I liked his batting style. You'd never really notice him make runs and before you knew it, he'd be past 30. He was never really a totally aggressive player, but he could really turn it on when it mattered. He was more of the nudger type, the one who works behind the scenes to make sure that things are going along fine and step into a crisis if there was one. I dont know if he'd have responded differently walking in at 18/3 yesterday, but I am willing to bet that there were quite a few English cricket fans who were wondering at that stage why Thorpe had not been picked.

I think the fact that his true value will perhaps only be realized when England faces crisis situations as they did yesterday is a true testament to his value and contribution to the side. Perhaps, like Nasser Hussain, he really didnt feel part of the 'Playstation generation'.

Labels: book cricket, retire