Cricket
Exclusive: Meet Nayan Doshi, the Surrey Spinner Who Shared Dressing Room with Graham Thorpe
Discover Nayan Doshi's cherished memories of sharing a dressing room with the late Graham Thorpe at Surrey.
Image Credits: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images
Nayan Doshi, who played the Ranji Trophy and the IPL in India, shares his memories with the late England legend from his English County days.
Graham Thorpe was England's best batsman in the 1990s. Brave against pace and skilful while dealing with spinners, the stylish left-hander played 51 out of his 100 Tests away from home and enjoyed a healthy average of 44.16. His demise earlier this week, at the age of 55, shocked the cricket fraternity.
Among his immediate teammates and colleagues was a British player of Indian origin - Nayan Doshi, son of former India international Dilip Doshi. The left-arm spin bowler was lucky to share the dressing room with Thorpe at Surrey in the English County Championship in the mid-2000.
"Thorpie and I played two-and-a-half seasons together before he retired. He supported me, backed my bowling, and ensured I could go places. He was a caring senior and a fantastic teammate," Doshi told SportsBoom.com.
Work Ethics and People's Person
The 45-year-old Doshi witnessed the final phase of Thorpe's first-class and international career. A newcomer then, he observed how the England legend went about his training.
"When he batted and practised and how he went about his business, you could see his work ethic. He wanted to take responsibility to set a good example, which I think is important. When England was going through a transitional phase, Thorpie held the innings together like a rock," added Doshi, a British citizen who was part of the Ranji Trophy and the Indian Premier League.
Thorpe was a people's person. He knew man-management even before he became a coach. "He was nice to some of the younger players. He had a great sense of humour. He gave a lot of confidence to players like me, and Rikki Clarke [former England international] at Surrey. If you wanted to grab a meal with him after a match, he would do that and get into a conversation. He never spoke about himself. He would try to know the other person better."
Image Credits: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Image
"He never looked at where you are from. He was a genuinely good human being. We were quite lucky in Surrey with a diverse group of players," said Doshi, who now runs the Doshi Cricket Academy in London.
He was funny in a different way. If he found anything nice, he would just pick it up and try to use it although he had a lot of kookaburras lying around in the dressing room.
Nayan Doshi
Using Doshi's Bat for the 100th Test Match
Thorpe is one of the 17 England internationals to have played 100 Test matches. Many are not aware that he used Doshi's bat for his farewell appearance against Bangladesh at Chester-le-Street in 2005. "Before his 100th Test match, he picked up one of my bats. He asked if I could do him a favour, and I said, what? He wanted to use my bat for his 100th. I told him, just take it. He just removed the stickers and used my bat.
Thorpe represented Surrey from 1988 to 2005 and was the most loved cricketer. He was also the first batting coach of current England Test captain, Ben Stokes.
Two years ago, when the Professional Cricketers' Association announced that Thorpe was "seriously ill", Stokes wore a special shirt as a tribute in the first Test against New Zealand at Lord's. It had Thorpe's name and the number, 564 as he was England's 564th capped player.
Wriddhaayan Bhattacharyya is a cricket journalist based in India who takes a keen interest in stories that unfold on and off the field. His expertise lies in news writing, features and profiles, interviews, stats, and numbers-driven stories. He has also worked as a podcaster and talk show host on cricket-related shows on YouTube and Spotify.