Ricky Ponting and Graham Thorpe. (Source – Twitter/X)
Former England cricketer Graham Thorpe passed away at the age of 55 after batting a long-standing illness. He was a stalwart of English cricket and represented the nation for 100 Test matches and 82 ODIs and scored over 9,000 international runs. A lot of former cricketers paid tribute to the legendary batter as Michael Atherton called Thorpe to be England’s best player in the 90s era.
Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting too opened up about Thorpe’s accomplishments and revealed that his English teammates used to call him ‘the little genius’. The 49-year-old also revealed that pace legend Wasim Akram once described him as the best left-handed batter he has ever bowled to.
Also Read: Michael Atherton pays tribute to Graham Thorpe
“I’ve heard Wasim Akram describe him as the best left-hand batsman that he ever bowled to. A lot of his English teammates called him ‘the little genius’ for how good he was. And some of the guys that I work with in the UK now were extremely close with him,” Ponting said in the latest episode of The ICC Review.
Ponting lost two of his biggest match-winners and close friends Shane Warne and Andrew Symonds in 2022 within a span of two months. Keeping that in mind, the former cricketer made sure to reach out to his English colleagues and offer condolence.
“As soon as the news broke, I made sure I got on the phone to those guys straight away, because it’s only a couple of years ago that it happened with me with Warney (Shane Warne) and Simmo (Andrew Symonds) and those guys. It seems like this big world of cricket, but when you lose something like that, the cricket world really shrinks down and everyone looks after each other.
“It’s just another one of those really, really sad days as far as the game of cricket is concerned. To his family and everyone close to him, think from everyone, it’s not just me, but from everyone in Australia that had anything to do with Graham Thorpe, our deepest condolences go out to you all,” he added.