England to pay tribute to Graham Thorpe ahead of 1st Test against Sri Lanka

Before the start of the first Test match between England and Sri Lanka the English players will pay tribute to late batsman Graham Thorpe at ManchesterThe teams will be lining up for a moment of applause before their national anthems at the Old Trafford Stadium with a tribute video being played on the big screen Broadcaster Sky Sports will also be paying tribute to the batter in their coverageThe Three Lions standin captain Ollie Pope said that his side will be wearing black armbands in memory of Graham Thorpe by calling him a great man He also mentioned sharing the dressing room with the late cricketer when Thorpe was appointed as their batting coachWe will have our black armbands on throughout the course of the game and there will be a tribute to him before It has hurt a lot of people in that changing room He was a great man I probably had two or three years playing with him as a batting coach I really admired him said Pope as quoted by ESPNCricinfoAlso ReadReal Sociedad president admits talks with Arsenal for Spain midfielder Mikel MerinoI remember him saying one thing to me which was Never let the runs you are scoring define you as a person In a bit of a rut when you are young that was exactly what I needed to hear It shows for me what a peoples person he was He was loved in the changing room He is such a sad loss to everyone to the country his family and the boys as well He is missed and we will honour him this week he addedGraham Thorpes wife earlier revealed that he committed suicide at the age of 55 after battling with depression and anxiety Thorpe made his international debut in 1993 and was the mainstay of the English batting throughout the late 90s and early 2000s The southpaw played 100 Tests and scored 6744 runs at an average of 4466 with 16 hundreds and 39 fifties to his name His highest score was 200 In ODIs the gritty batter scored 2380 runs at an average of 3718 with 21 fiftiesThorpe was also the teams batting coach and assistant coach until the 202122 Ashes tour to Australia which England lost by 40 Thorpe was an influential figure in the English dressing room having worked with most of the squad that is playing the Sri Lanka series The batter was also a figure who helped in flourishing of star players Joe Root and Ben Stokes in their careers Notably in his first Test as a fulltime skipper Stokes had worn a jersey bearing Thorpes name to the toss following former players suicide attempt that had left him seriously illThe opening of an inquest into batters death last week heard that he died due to traumatic injuries after being struck by a train at Esher Railway Station in Surrey on the August 4 morningLancashire the county that uses the Old Trafford Stadium as their home stadium will also be recognising the career of legendary pacer James Anderson who retired from international cricket last month with 704 Test wickets and 991 international wickets His achievements will be celebrated on the outfield during the lunch interval and former England batter Michael Atherton will be making a presentation for himWith ANI Inputs