He added " I also want to have more time to build a relationship with my two children, given my new personnal circumstances at home".
Duncan Fletcher, England's coach, whilst saddened to see Thorpe's withdrawal from the one-day game believes he will continue to provided the backbone of England's Test team, "Graham's been a fantastic one-day player for England and we'll miss him but we look forward to him continuing to be a key player in our Test match side".
Thorpe had recently been left out of the final stages of the Natwest series in favour of Michael Vaughan, "Given that he let us know his decision to retire from the one-day team at the time we decided it was a good opportunity to continue with Michael in the side and let him gain further valuable experience in one day international cricket" commented Fletcher.
Thorpe has played an important role in England's one day team scoring 2,380 runs, including 21 fifties, in 82 one-day internationals at an average of 37.18. He was expected to play an integral part in England's squad for the World Cup in South Africa next year. Whilst I for one will miss watching him play in the one dayers, it is as a Test batsmen that he really excels. By concentrating on his test career he may well be prolonging his time at the top level of international cricket allowing him to confirm his place as one of England's truly great batsmen . |
