Thorpe’s post-playing career encompassed some media work, writing an autobiography and working as a specialist batting coach and assistant coach for New South Wales, and then for England from 2010 until 2022, when he was sacked along with Chris Silverwood, the coach, following another heavy defeat in Australia.

Bizarrely, he filmed the players partying at the end of the series and the footage, including Tasmanian police telling leading players to go to bed following a complaint about “intoxicated people”, ended up on the website of the Sydney Morning Herald. Officers had apparently been called because Thorpe lit a cigar in an indoor space.

Thorpe applied to be head coach of Middlesex at Lord’s, but was overlooked. He was subsequently appointed coach of Afghanistan, but shortly afterwards, in May 2022, his family announced that he was seriously ill and receiving treatment in hospital, with an unclear prognosis.