Sydney was his penultimate Test with England. In Hobart, England were drubbed, completing an ignominious tour. As the sun came up the morning after, at the tail end of a drinking session between the two sides, Thorpe lit up a cigar indoors at the team hotel, which led to the police being called. When they arrived, Thorpe filmed them “just for the lawyers”. He had sent the video to just a couple of close friends, but it ended up on the Sydney Morning Herald’s website. Thorpe was mortified, contacting players individually to apologise for his part in the negative publicity at the end of a long, joyless tour.

At a time when the game was facing questions over every aspect of its culture, the incident sealed Thorpe’s fate, and he was the third senior figure fired in three early February days: first managing director Ashley Giles, then Silverwood, finally Thorpe.

A veteran of 30 years in the ruthless world of Ashes cricket, Thorpe was said to be understanding of the situation. He was pipped to the head coach’s role at Middlesex by Richard Johnson, before being appointed head coach of Afghanistan in late March 2022. He never took the job, as a result of his first attempt on his life.

The English cricket machine immediately slipped into action to support one of its favourite sons. He was cared for by the NHS for weeks, then with the help of the Professional Cricketers’ Association, his county Surrey, the charity Sporting Chance, and more local NHS resources, further mental health provision was sought.

Through it all, Amanda said “there were glimpses of hope and of the old Graham”. His generation of Surrey players, who enjoyed so much success together at the turn of the century, remain tight-knit, and many were in regular contact with him and his family. Thorpe came to the Oval, where his great mate Alec Stewart is still director of cricket, to help with a couple of coaching sessions when he felt well enough and, in November 2022, attended a dinner in the Pavilion to celebrate the chairmanship of longtime friend of the family Richard Thompson, who was moving from Surrey to ECB. Thompson would be a pillar of support to Thorpe and his family in both roles.

“We supported him as a family and he tried many, many treatments but unfortunately none of them really seemed to work,” said Amanda.

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