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It must have taken Graham Thorpe a lot of soul-searching to make the decision he announced on Saturday night, but he was entirely right. England's first-choice No 4 batsman has looked run-down this summer, so run- down that he has barely been worth his place in the team. He badly needs the winter off he has given himself.

Thorpe is often called ``England's best batsman''. For what it is worth, I think he is, once allowance has been made for the qualities that have made Michael Atherton such a durable Test match performer.

But he hasn't looked it this year. He has looked shifty at the crease, bored at slip, and generally distracted. He has given the impression of wanting to be somewhere else. Now we know he is going to be somewhere else this winter - at home in Surrey with his wife and two young children. That is as it should be.

There is no point tut-tutting about his decision not to go to South Africa. Thorpe has been on 10 successive international tours and that takes a lot out of any man. Touring is not always a banquet of truffles and strawberries, particularly when the tourists are England.

In the old days, and not even all that long ago, players did not go on tour each winter. There were lengthy gaps in the calendar, earmarked for rest and recreation.

The modern Test cricketer knows no such luxury. It really is a treadmill and Thorpe has stated that, at the age of 30, with six years of it behind him, there are other aspects of his life that demand equal consideration.

It is not an altogether surprising decision. I recall speaking to Thorpe the day before the Barbados Test 17 months ago and finding a man who, although friendly and willing to talk, was clearly tired. The next day he made a fine hundred and, a week later, he made an unbeaten 84 in Antigua as Michael Atherton's captaincy ended in defeat. That first innings remains Thorpe's last hundred in Test cricket.

He has played eight Tests since then and missed seven, including four last winter in Australia, when he returned home to nurse a back injury.

In his last 16 innings he has made only one half-century - 77 against Australia in Brisbane. This summer he has had a thin time. The 44 he made in the second innings of the game that ended yesterday was his best score of the series.

His Test record does not look particularly outstanding on paper. In 57 matches he has passed 100 only six times, and he has never gone past 138.

It appears a modest achievement on which to base the claim that he is the best player in the country. But the manner in which he makes his runs, and the way he can change the tone of an innings, marks him out as a batsman of class. Whoever England take to South Africa, England will miss Thorpe - Thorpe at his best, that is.

There was some criticism yesterday of the way Thorpe chose to disclose his winter recess. In the view of some observers he should have announced his decision beforehand, giving the selectors a chance to blood another new batsman at the Oval.

It is a view, but a misguided one. Too many players have been given their chance in the last Test of the summer, and had the privilege withdrawn as soon as stumps were pulled.

Thorpe was entitled to think he had one innings in him, even if it was plain to others that he hadn't. He batted very well on Saturday night, when the sun shone, and the crowd cheered. When he was out yesterday morning, in the 13th over of a day that dawned full of hope and ended in abject misery, he was sent on his way with a wave of goodwill.

The manner of his dismissal was predictable. For the second time in the match he was caught at first slip by Stephen Fleming. Four times this series he has been caught at slip, which suggests it is not just his bat that is wandering. His mind is rambling all the way back to his Surrey homestead, stopping at every junction along the journey.

Although he noted that his temporary absence will enable another player to take his place on a more permanent basis, Thorpe will return. When he comes back it should be as a happier man, and if he is happier, he should be a better player for it.

Perhaps more Test cricketers should take a sabbatical, both to refresh their minds and to re-discover a fact that seems to be beyond many of them - that there is a whole world out there beyond cricket.

Ever since Thorpe came into the Surrey side as a teenager in 1988 he has had something to strive for.

First, the entirely human desire to live up to his reputation as a young batsman, who raised the highest of hopes. Then came the search for a Test place which he only realised after five tours with the A team.

Finally, having declared himself with a century on his debut at Trent Bridge against Australia in 1993, came the really hard bit, forging an international career worthy of his ambitions.

Even the most ambitious cricketer must sometimes sit down and think of other matters. Now that he is 30, established as a player, and married, the flame no longer burns so brightly within Thorpe. He wants to carry on playing the game, but it does not consume him as once it did.

Spending time at home this winter, re-acquainting himself with the sort of life that most people of his age live, will be an educative process.

He has spoken of re-joining the England team for the one-day leg thrash at the end of the Test series in South Africa. He shouldn't bother. What he needs is a complete break from the routine of international cricket so that when he returns next May, as he should, he will be looking forward to the challenge.

This season has not been without its happier moments. Thorpe will end it with a championship medal - so far ahead are Surrey of all others - and he will greet September with the knowledge that he has taken a hard decision for all the right reasons.