Never forget the lion of Karachi Who was dancing in the dark with Hussain'

A CHAMPION WHO WORE HIS HEART ON HIS SLEEVE

- MIKE WALTERS

DARKNESS was falling like a curtain on Karachi when Graham Thorpe edged the winning runs in light barely fit for mining coal.

He never got enough credit for that unbeaten 64, culminating in the Chinese cut off Saqlain Mushtaq which took England to the chequered flag in 2000, after Pakistan's time-wasting had threatened to leave them stranded agonisingly short of victory.

That year Australia celebrated swimmer lan Thorpe's hat-trick of gold medals at the Sydney Olympics, but we had the real 'Thorpedo.

His big mate Nasser Hussain, who once described Thorpe as a "little genius" among England's underachievers, was with him in the middle when the twilight heist was complete.

Three months later, in a Colombo furnace, Thorpe was England's hero again, picking his way through the minefield of Muttiah Muralitharan's corkscrew spin to seal another overseas Test series triumph against the odds.

The following year there would be a freewheeling double century in Christchurch; in the next, a comeback hundred - after an intermission to address turbulence in his private life-at The Oval.