CALCUTTA, India (Reuters)
England's leading batsman Graham Thorpe believes he can now concentrate fully on cricket after cutting short his tour of India last year because of personal problems. "I would like to put that behind me," he told reporters. "There is only one way to get on with my life which is to play cricket." Thorpe played only the first match in the three-Test series before flying home. Now he is prepared to play a full part in the six-match one-day series starting on Saturday (Jan 19). "Coming back here my mind is pretty much emptied. Now I can concentrate on my cricket," Thorpe said. "I'm not going to say how I'm going to come through this one way or another. All I can say is that I'm working hard and I'll play as well as I can."

Thorpe had had highly successful campaigns in Sri Lanka and Pakistan over the past two seasons and was a key factor in England's Test series wins in both countries. "I've always enjoyed playing in the Indian sub-continent. I've been to Pakistan and Sri Lanka. I have enjoyed it there, now I hope to enjoy it here as well.

"India are a very good side, they have some really good players," he said. "It's going to be a very hard series but playing at home, India would clearly be the favourites." Thorpe said India's main weapon would be their spin duo of offspinner Harbhajan Singh, who grabbed two five-wicket hauls in the Tests, and legspinner Anil Kumble, who topped the series wickets tally with 19.

But he declined to compare the Indian spinners with their illustrious counterparts from the sub-continent, Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan and Pakistan's Saqlain Mushtaq. "I have played against all of the spinners on different surfaces," he said. "They're all very good, I would rank them all in the same bracket. We have to work out a way to tackle them."

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