The England players were seen wearing black armbands against Sri Lanka on the Day 1 of first Test at Manchester. This gesture made by the team in memory of former England cricketer Graham Thorpe as a tribute to the former player. England is currently playing a three-match Test series against Sri Lanka. Ollie pope is the leader for the squad since Ben Stokes suffered a hamstring injury playing in the Hundreds last week. England will be looking forward for another series win here, and will try to get up on the points table of the WTC.
Before the start of the game, both teams lined up on the outfield and paid their tribute to the legend.
Ollie pope spoke about Graham Thorpe and how theteam had reacted to him passing away, along with how the team will be wearing the black armbands the whole game to pay their respect to the cricketing legend.
“We’ll have our black armbands on throughout the course of the game and there’ll be a tribute to him. It 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. I remember him saying one thing to me, which was: ‘Never let the runs you’re scoring define you as a person’. In a bit of a rut when you’re young, that was exactly what I needed to hear. It shows, for me, what a people’s person he was. He was loved in the changing-room. He’s such a sad loss to everyone: to the country, his family and the boys as well. He’s missed, and we’ll honour him this week.” Said Ollie Pope.
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