Thorpe on road to recovery with new inspiration (30 Aug 1998)

30 August 1998

Thorpe on road to recovery with new inspiration

Scyld Berry

Scyld Berry explains how England's recuperating batsman is shaping up for a successful Ashes tour

IT IS the first Oval Test since 1992 without Graham Thorpe in the England side. He was at his home ground on Friday, slipping into the physio's room and gym, but not so you would notice. He is the least public of men, the only cricketer who can make Mike Atherton seem loud and ostentatious. While other England sportsmen rehabilitate in private pools, Thorpe goes to his local baths in Epsom.

So far his recovery from his back operation is going to plan, and by the end of October the vacuum in England's middle order should no longer exist. He has not ruled out a return for Surrey this season, but that may be what he calls "the attacking instinct in my head" which is talking. Not until the coming week will he pick up a bat for the first time since a cyst was removed a month ago from near the base of his spine.

Considering that Thorpe has set a new standard for consistent achievement - no other cricketer has ever done 10 consecutive English summers and winter tours, with the A or senior side - it is surprising something more serious didn't give. Ten years of bending, at first slip or in his stance, in cars and planes; but never yielding.

His utterances are naturally brief, and all the more so when he is exercising at the Oval gym to strengthen his back muscles. "I came back early from the West Indies for several reasons. One was because my grandfather was passing away, another because my back was playing up. I did a lot of work when I got back and it felt strong. Then I had another back spasm at Southampton (in May) and an epidural which worked for six weeks.

"When back spasms happen you're out for 10 days. That's what happened at Old Trafford. I got up on Saturday morning and bent down to pick up my socks and felt it go. I've seen the replay of when I batted, and it wasn't very graceful.

"After the operation I had to sit tight for 10 days. Or rather lie flat on my back to let the scar tissue heal. When you've had an operation, you realise the importance of what you do and the satisfaction you can get from it. I feel as though it's going to be another start."

It was strange for him to watch England playing on television, albeit briefly as he has tried to detach himself while getting himself fit again. "Cricket on TV doesn't appear real to me, it's so much easier. What stood out massively though was what England can do when they have the same bowlers in every match."

What also stood out massively was how England missed Thorpe as one Test collapse followed another. There is no better illustration of his toughness and self-sufficiency than his minimisation of soft dismissals. He was out hooking on his Test debut in 1993, and never since.

And if he has been missed in the Test side, then all the more so in the one-day team. For if we didn't appreciate beforehand Thorpe's skill in working the ball into gaps for five an over, we have this summer as a succession of batsmen, some with fine Test records, have hit the spinners straight to the in-fielders ball after infuriating ball until they have buckled under the pressure they have created, gone for the big shot and missed, and made the England innings implode.

He would not be Thorpe if he had analysed this ability to work the ball around like no one else in England: whether it stems from peripheral vision, or a map of the fielders in his head, or wrist-work. To him it is a simple skill. "In mid-innings in one-day cricket the format's set out for you. Use the pace of the quick bowlers, and find the gaps against the spinners when there are fielders on the boundary."

Thorpe is less taciturn than he used to be, at least when he finishes his exercises. He will even say: "Captaincy is not something I'd chase, but if I didn't do it somewhere, I'd feel I haven't lived my life to the limit." For the time being, he is the best bet to score the most runs for England in the Ashes series, thanks partly to the injury which has renewed his appetite.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)