Two tragedies and a triumph
Michael Henderson
THIS is a story of two cricketers. They both play for Surrey and both have represented England, although Adam Hollioake's Test career was short-lived. The other, Graham Thorpe, may now speak of his international career in the past tense after his decision to withdraw from England's tour of Australia, which starts next month.
Thorpe pulled out earlier this week, having assured the selectors that his well-documented domestic problems had eased sufficiently to let him concentrate on Test cricket once more. He would no longer be available for one-day matches, he told them, but he was ready to return to the Test side. Accordingly, because he remains the best batsman in the country, he was included in the touring party.
Yet, when he changed his mind, nobody was greatly surprised. Thorpe has cut a forlorn, brooding figure in the last year, since the break-up of his marriage, which brought in turn problems about the custody of his two children, He returned home early from India last November and decided, in the middle of this summer, to absent himself from all cricket in order to sort out his personal life. Now, it seems, he requires more time to do so. The immediate consequence of his about-turn is that England will go to Australia to play the world's best team without their most accomplished batsman. That is not merely an English view. The Australians have known, since Thorpe made a century against them on his Test debut in 1993, that the left-hander is the best player in this country. It is a crippling loss which can only confirm, were confirmation needed, that Australia will start the series as overwhelming favourites.
But Thorpe will pay a greater price. It is extremely unlikely that he will play for England again; with his Test career over, he may not want to carry on playing county cricket either. He appears so distracted that he is unable to say with certainty what he truly wants, and so a wonderful career is coming to a premature close amid tears and regret.
Which is where Hollioake comes in. In March he lost his younger brother, Ben, in a dreadful car accident in Perth, Western Australia. Ben was only 23 and had everything to live for. It was a horrible death, and the memorial service at Southwark Cathedral in August, at which Adam spoke with great feeling, was a painful affair.
Hollioake Snr excused himself from the first half of the season. When he returned, he led Surrey to their third championship in four years, and, in a final flourish last weekend, he made a double century in the victory against Leicestershire. A season that began with almost intolerable personal pain ended on a note of grace, with Hollioake as hero, Thorpe, alas, cannot come to terms with his own situation, at least not in a way that accommodates his life as a cricketer. Friends have tried to point out that, by playing cricket, he would give some purpose to his life, that it would help to take his mind off all the other things that trouble him. But he is not persuaded.
Thorpe is not a bad man. In fact, behind his unemotional exterior, he is an intelligent, quietly humorous one, and he is a bloody fine cricketer who still has much to give. The thing is, he no longer feels able to give it.
This is a terribly sad tale.
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