SHOULD he ever get around to casting The Godfather IV–The Reunion, Francias Coppola might do worse than set up a screen test in the England room. Wise, principled and mulish Michael Atherton would make a spiffing Vito Corleone. Dafter than a brush yet never less than fiercely devoted, Darren Gough would be perfect as Sonny. Phil Tufnell is Fredo, the errant-yet-loveable black sheep. Michael? For the requisite blend of simmering passion and burning conviction, Adam Hollioake and Nasser Hussain would vie for the final nod.

Which leaves Tom Hagen, the consigliere, the acceptable face of the Mob. The self-effacing lawyer who oils the wheels and keeps things kosher. The linchpin rivals are obliged to nobble first. Enter Graham Thorpe, the silent wind in HMS England's sails.

Hence the widespread astonishment at Thorpe's victory in the Favourite Current Player category of the recent WCM readers' poll. Not least chez Thorpe. One churlish soul likened it to Nigel Mansell winning the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, but then what do they know who only images know?

It's true that Thorpe is an anonymous hero. Unprepossessing of build and air. Ostentation confined to that yellow batting grip and the occasional air punch at moments of personal triumph. Untouched by chat shows or cereal boxes. Inspiring yet mostly unsung; valued yet largely unknown. If his profile was any lower he'd need stilts. His public utterances? Up there with the collected wisdom of John Major: a slender volume, short on sound, let alone bite.

An anonymous hero: but Thorpe was voted Favourite Current Player in our recent Readers' Poll

About time, then, for a bit of shouting, as Thorpe tucked eagerly into some pecking duck in the neon-lit heart of manchester's Chinatown (man cannot live by pre-tour diet sheets alone), here, it seemed, was a man at one with self and muse. He was hotfoot from the Old Trafford nets, refreshed by a couple of months with wife and son, Sharjah less than a week away. You could could feel the flame flickering back.

`People talk about entering the zone, and I entered it a couple of times last seasons, particularly in the Edgbaston test: when You're seeing the ball as big as a ballon, when the only person who can get you out is you. I felt that there and, sure enough, I got myself out [dragging a pull to midwicket]. That's what I've got to work at. I don't have to shout it from the top of the hill but my hundreds are getting bigger. The really big score is within reach, and I just hope it comes with England. I have been doing it for Surrey. It's a matter of discipline, of not running down the wicket on 105'. Or getting out hit-wicket on 119, as in Auckland last January. But why carp?

What soon became apparent was the niggling sense of frustration. The fuse was lit innocently enough. Had the preparation for the winter's labours, I wondered been adequate? Cue deep breath and helpless grimace.

`I don't think our structure allows us to prepare properly. You're trying to perform for county and country. You're kidding yourself if you think you can maintain form for 10 months. It's very frustrating. Every other country has its best players under contract to the board, because they want them to be at their best. I don't want to go back to Surrey and have people say I'm not giving my all. So you put it in, may be even more. We' re always compromised, especially the fast bowlers, which is why so many get injured. The burden needs to be reduced. We need those contracts now, but you get the feeling that some of the people making these decisions are thinking, well, we didn't get contracts in my day. But I shouldn't be saying this; people should realise it. If I was running a business, I wouldn't run it like this.

In some respects, the back of 1997 couldn't come soon enough for Thorpe. Granted, it was a year of renewal, but also one of new experiences, most of them decidedly unpleasant. On the credit side, not only did he confirm himself as the finest willow-wielder in England, he even satisfied all those Frindall wannabes to whom worth is a purely digital concept. (He came to terms with all that nonsense, he revealed, while rooming with Dermot Reeve in South Africa before the last World Cup: `He asked me what the difference between 98 and l00 was.') After 19 Tests of nothing but half Montys came back-to-back hundreds against New Zealand, then the big one in the opening Ashes joust. Then came that citation as England's man of the series; not bad, he reckons, considering how many people demanded his head after Headingley. Then, in Sharjah, a man-of-the-match-winning show of shimmying surefootedness to secure the Champions Trophy.

`Even my accountant asked me why I took that run at Trent Bride I made a balls-up'

To cap it all, his beloved Chelsea won the FA Cup for the first time since he took up potty training. Alongside all this, however, came his first brush, not merely with petty officialdom and public ridicule, but tabloid notoriety.

Being fined for wearing an official ECB cap at breakfast he could Just about stomach (`Bob [Bennett] owes me a few rum-and-cokes for that'). After all, he hadn't read the board's new style bible with quite the thoroughness expected. Being accused of infidelity by the News of the World was another kettle of cod entirely.

The reported encounter was alleged to have occurred in New Zealand, barely a couple of months after his wife Nicky, having previously lost a child during pregnancy, had given birth to Henry. Thorpe was adamant he had been `set up'. He thought about suing, about hiring `a private dick' to trail the damsel concerned, then realised that taking on the might of the Dirty Digger would cost him considerably more than an arm and a leg. Besides, the only person he needed to convince was Nicky. And Nicky believed him. End of Story.

 ALL YOU REALLY need to know about Thorpe is that his midsummer blip ended shortly after he was anointed (with a modicum of poetic licence) as the man who dropped the catch that lost the match that lost the Ashes. Rewind to Headingley, the score 50 for 4, the beneficiary Matthew Elliott, who then added 170 to his score. The embarrassment remains transparent.

`It was an absolute dolly. I'm not short-sighted enough to think that one slip catch loses a series, but it was an important catch. I tried not to follow it in the press but I caught a glimpse of a headline in the dressingroom during a rain delay, complete with photo. It wasn't a nice experience but you accept it. Then came the calls for me to be dropped. You try and be philosophical but there's also an element of how dare you?

`There were a few sarcastic comments flying around over the next few days, people coming up and saying well caught, that sort of thing. You accept that, you live with it. Same with comments in the press. If it goes too far you have a few words, but I've only once had cause to do that, during the last Ashes tour.

`Peter Roebuck wrote something in the Melbourne Age accusing me of being lazy. Somebody kindly slipped the paper under my hotel door. I was fielding at silly point, the ball went down to third man and there was no-one at cover point. Me and Hicky, who was at short fine leg, just looked at each other. Roebuck made two paragraphs out of it! So I called up the press box the next day. He didn't know me. What angers me is when people write things without knowing me. Come up and have a chat! So I had a chat with Roebuck, told him exactly what I thought. I felt, looking him in the eye, that he was quite a weak human being.

`You have to be able to deal with the failures, to respond, to take the positives out. And after Headingley I batted well in the last two Tests, caught everything. I responded. The strong ones can deal with it. It also helped being a father. Whenever you feel low, you have that small face looking up at you. It gives you that extra spur.'

What, though, of his loss of marbles on that urn-gifting evening at Trent Bridge? With the extra half-hour fading fast, what on earth was he doing taking a single from the second ball of an over, exposing Messrs Ten and Jack to the demon McGrath? Surely he wasn't thinking of his average? Not Thorpe. Not the dutiful D'Artagnan who, in pursuit of declarations at Bridgetown and Leeds in 1994, `smacked it up in the air on 84 and got run out for 73 chancing one to the keeper'?

The truth, typically, is somewhat less devious. `Even my accountant asked me why took that run. I made a balls-up. It could have pissed down all day on the Monday. I went straight back to the dressing-room and told Nasser, I don't think I did the right thing. Deano [ Headley] said I was absolutely right to trust him. I told him I wasn't. But I'd been watching Steve Waugh bat with the tall. He tries to give them confidence – takes singles, gives'em the strike, lets'em bat. I was with Deano for eight overs and he'd given me enough confidence to believe he was thinking, Yeah, I'm all right. I put it down to technical error. In the Head. Believing Headley.'

 THE AUTRALIANS have more respect for Thorpe than for almost any other Pom. They see in him the qualities they hold most dear. Unshakeable inner belief, fearlessness, the controlled aggression that allows mind games to be won and initiatives to be grasped.

Which is why, amid the debate over Atherton's successor, some of the tourists were astonished that his name was never mentioned. And told him so. It was a bit like asking Tom Hagen why nobody had proposed him as the new Don. Nothing could be further from his mind. For now. `It was flattering, sure, and I might think about it later if I need a fresh challenge, but I'm quite content giving advice and support. I suppose Athers values me because I speak my mind.' so speak it.

Not kidding: Thorpe says fatherhood has changed him

`Our dressing-room is easy to come into. There's no airs or graces. I'm a senior player but I don't think I give that impression when people get to know me. But I'd like to see us being harder on ourselves, taking the more difficult route more often. We need to be more honest with ourselves.'

Another deepish breath. `We need collective hardness. Nasser was right. The social element in county cricket is almost in-bred. I've always been able to take a step back. I'm not a huge socialiser. It's a career. You hope you make a few friends, and you're not there to make enemies. But it's a career.

`We do have players with the necessary hardness, the necessary self-belief, but I want to see it rub off on others. We are in a better position than a year ago. And we're good enough to beat the Windies. But we have to win the tough sessions, and jump all over them when route more we do. The Aussies managed to impose their mental strength on us and we weren't quite up to it. Maybe some of our guys felt inferior. That's something I've never felt. Never understood.'

Ah, the bliss of ignorance…

`I'd like to see us being harder on ourselves, taking the more difficult route more often. Nasser was right'

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