Graham Thorpe reaches his 100th Test cap widely feted as the most complete England batsman of his generation.

The occasion may well be an anticlimactic one against weak opposition and under overcast skies at the Riverside but that will not bother Thorpe one bit. He has found deep fulfilment as a cricketer in the latter stages of his career, and although he craves a final crack at the Aussies would retire at any time this summer with a huge smile on his face.

The media fuss over his decision to coach in New South Wales this winter, effectively announcing his retirement from Tests at the end of the summer, was an unfortunate distraction from this week's milestone but the older, wiser Thorpe won't lose his focus, nor his dignity, over the matter.

That Thorpe has attained such serenity is down to his satisfaction in drawing the most from his huge but slightly unfulfilled potential in the second part of his career. Since returning to the side in the summer of 2003 he has scored 1,569 runs in 22 Test matches at an average of 54, with five hundreds.

It's not just the latter-day runs that have brought him particular personal pride, but the manner and circumstances of their making. When he was recalled in 2003 to play South Africa at The Oval, many suggested he had become too mentally fragile to play Tests. A very public marriage break-up had torn him apart and forced him to pull out of the 2001-02 Ashes series. He must even have had doubts himself, which is why his hundred on return was one of the most emotional and redemptive innings in recent Test cricket.

Along with fulfilment as a player in the past two years has come fulfilment as a man. Thorpe has changed from the surly, self-focused individual of his early days to the ultimate team man revelling in the joys of being a senior pro, and benefiting from the more philosophical outlook that was the gold he mined from his emotional traumas.

"I've been able to see a real change in myself as a person as well," he said. "I could be a bit of a stroppy bugger in the first half of my career," he said earlier this week at the Riverside. "Having a family, having children changed all that. And the events that followed have given me a more philosophical view of the game."

"To be able to say I'm a happy human being says a lot from where I was two and a half years ago in my life. I'm very proud and honoured to have got to this stage in my career."

Thorpe's change of mood was nowhere more evident than in Johannesburg last winter where he scored nought and one but yet was able to celebrate England's win and other players' success. The old grumpy Thorpe was too solipsistic a character to take such delight in team-mates' performances. His new mood was partly down to a change in his outlook, partly down to the security which his many match-winning innings had brought him, but also because he was influenced by the prevailing team zeitgeist.

"My first 40 to 45 Tests were quite tough," Thorpe explained. "We were in a different set-up with a lot of player insecurities and before central contracts when the team was very inconsistent. But during the last four or five years under Duncan there has been a curve which has gone steadily upwards. Hopefully that will continue rising over the next two or three years."

There have been many extraordinary moments in his long career, including three Ashes hundreds, one of them, 114 not out, on his 1993 debut at Trent Bridge.

Thorpe would give pride of place for personal reasons to the valedictory 124 on home turf at The Oval in 2003, but many fans will remember his 64 not out when England clinched victory in near-darkness in Karachi in 2000-01.

Above all, that is, unless he plays one final Ashes-winning innings before he drifts off into happy retirement.

2 Jun, 2005