England players wear special headbands to pay tribute to late Graham Thorpe
England Players wear Special Headbands to Tribute to Late Graham Trophe
London [UK], August 1 (ANI): Day 2, the fifth and final Test match of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy between India and England at the Oval, the Three Lions are sporting special headbands in honour of the life and legacy of the late English batter Graham Thorpe, who last year committed suicide.
The family of Graham has co-designed the headbands. A Day for Thorpey will collect donations to mental charity Mind by selling a limited edition of a headband just like the one Graham wore when batting on behalf of England. He ended his life by suicide at age 55 on August 4, after a years-long struggle with what his wife Amanda called major depression and anxiety. Thorpe debuted internationally in 1993 and was the bread and butter of the English batting in the late 90s and early 2000s.
The southpaw had a lifetime of 100 Tests and had 6744 runs with 16 hundreds and 39 fifties as well as an average of 44.66. His highest score was 200*. The gritty batter hit 2380 runs at an average of 37.18 with 21 fifties in ODIs. Thorpe was a Surrey legend.
The England great helped shape the careers and the talent of numerous modern-day greats in England including Stokes and Joe Root, serving under the coaching staff of the England Lions and the England senior team.
There was a five-wicket performance by pacer Gus Atkinson and a brisk 92-run opening partnership by Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley that set India on the back foot during the first session in the second day of the fifth Test between England and India at The Oval on Friday.
England had scored 109/1 at the conclusion of the play in the session, with Crawley (52 *) and Ollie Pope (12*) remaining unbeaten. They trail by 115 runs. India resumed day two with a score of 204/6, and the unbeaten pair is Karun Nair (52*) and Washington Sundar (19*).
Short Score: England: 109/1 (Zak Crawley 52, Ben Duckett 43, Akash Deep 1/46) against India. (ANI)
