Peter Roebuck, cricket commentator commits suicide

Sex assault twist in Roebuck suicide 14 November 2011 tweet3 Email Print RELATED CONTENT Wed 09 Nov South Africa's FlagSouth Africa vs. Australia's FlagAustralia 1st Test - Cape Town Result: South Africa won by 8 wickets Australian team offers condolences to Roebuck's family India will remember Roebuck for his indictment of Australian team Roebuck jumped to his death, sexual assault angle emerges Roebuck's last write-up: 'Mind you, a lot can happen in a week. It just did' Fairfax Media describes iconic writer Roebuck's death as a 'Great shock' Tributes flow for maestro of cricket writing, Peter Roebuck Sydney, November 14, 2011 (AFP) - Renowned cricket writer Peter Roebuck plunged to his death from a hotel window in South Africa after being questioned by police about an alleged sexual assault, his employer said on Monday. The English-born Roebuck, 55 and a former first-class cricketer, was covering the ongoing Test series between South Africa and Australia when he died on Saturday night. South African police confirmed he committed suicide and the Australian newspaper group he worked for, Fairfax Media, said he fell to his death from the Southern Sun Hotel in Cape Town. Roebuck had written on cricket for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in Melbourne since 1984, and the newspapers said his death followed questioning by police from the sexual crimes unit about an alleged sexual assault. They provided no further details although The Australian newspaper said the allegations involved an incident last week. Fairfax said Roebuck was agitated and asked a fellow cricket journalist for help. "Can you come down to my room quickly? I've got a problem," he said and asked for help to find a lawyer. Minutes later Roebuck, regarded by many as the finest cricket writer of his generation, fell to his death from a window. The Australian said he landed on an awning above the hotel foyer. Fairfax said it was believed a uniformed police officer was in the room at the time. South African police said an inquest had been opened but would not comment further. Roebuck studied law at Cambridge and played 335 first-class matches before becoming an Australian citizen and making a career writing about the sport, quickly establishing an avid following with his forthright, intelligent prose. He also regularly commentated for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Never far from controversy, he received a suspended prison sentence in England in 2001 for common assault after caning three South African teenage cricketers who had stayed with him in 1999. Former Australia captain Steve Waugh, who played alongside Roebuck at Somerset, led tributes to him. "He was never afraid to tackle the big issues in world cricket and would often be a lone voice if he believed strongly in the cause," Waugh told Fairfax media. "As a captain I would always be keen to read Peter's take on the previous day's play." Mark Taylor, whom Waugh succeeded as captain of Australia in 1999, said Roebuck's opinion was greatly respected as it was based on so much experience. "Not every player, me included, agreed with what he said all the time. We did know it wasn't based on a whim, it was based on a lot of experience," he said. Another former Australian captain, Greg Chappell, highlighted Roebuck's philanthropic work with the charity The LBW Trust - Learning for a Better World. "Something like 250 kids in cricket-playing countries around the world, underprivileged kids, are being educated through the LBW Trust, and that was from his vision," Chappell told the Herald. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Roebuck jumped to his death, sexual assault angle emerges 13 November 2011 tweet Email Print RELATED CONTENT Wed 09 Nov South Africa's FlagSouth Africa vs. Australia's FlagAustralia 1st Test - Cape Town Result: South Africa won by 8 wickets Peter Roebuck: 'Cricket South Africa has lost a good friend' Australian team offers condolences to Roebuck's family Sex assault twist in Roebuck suicide India will remember Roebuck for his indictment of Australian team Roebuck's last write-up: 'Mind you, a lot can happen in a week. It just did' Fairfax Media describes iconic writer Roebuck's death as a 'Great shock' Tributes flow for maestro of cricket writing, Peter Roebuck (AFP with Y! Cricket Inputs) - Renowned cricket writer Peter Roebuck was found dead at his hotel in South Africa, where he was covering Australia's Test series with the Proteas, his employers said Sunday. The South African police released a statement earlier in the day saying that Roebuck took his own life. He had jumped from the sixth floor of his hotel. Later in the day, it was learnt that there was a sexual assault angle to the case, and that he had been questioned by the police earlier in the day. The Daily Telegraph reports that Roebuck jumped from a window while the police were still in his room. "He landed on the awning outside the entrance to the hotel. Police removed personal items from his room and took his body to the mortuary yesterday morning," the newspaper reported. The circumstances of his death were not immediately clear, but the Sydney Morning Herald said he had reportedly been "spoken to by police earlier in the day" and had been seen in an "agitated state" according to the ABC. "This office can confirm that an incident occurred last night at about 21:15 at a hotel in Claremont where a 55-year-old British national who worked as an Australian commentator committed suicide," the statement said. "An inquest docket has been opened for investigation." British-born Roebuck, 55, studied law at Cambridge and played 335 first-class matches before making a career writing about the sport, quickly establishing an avid following with his forthright, intelligent prose. He regularly commentated for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and wrote for the nation's Fairfax newspapers. "It is with great shock that we have learnt today that Peter Roebuck has died in Newlands, South Africa," Fairfax chief Greg Hywood said in a statement. "Peter was not only an extremely gifted cricket writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, he was also one of Australia's most popular cricket commentators for the ABC," added Hywood. "In recent years he built a reputation as one of the best columnists on the sport." Cricket Australia chief James Sutherland expressed shock at the death of Roebuck, a "familiar face" to the Australian cricket team, who had been with the players "only hours before his sudden death". "He spoke his mind frankly and while one didn't necessarily always have to agree, you always respected what he had to say," he added. Craig Norenbergs, head of the ABC's Grandstand sports programme, said it was "incredibly sad news". "He was an integral part of the Grandstand commentary team, apart from being a magnificent print journalist," Norenbergs said. "For us he could describe a game of cricket in such a way that even if you didn't like the game, you liked the way that he went about his business." Roebuck, a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1988, captained English county side Somerset in the 1980s and turned out regularly for Devon after retiring from top-level cricket in 1991. He played 335 First Class matches, scoring 17,558 runs and takin 72 wickets. He penned several books on the sport and was a sometimes polarising figure known for his strong views and admired as one of cricket's most articulate and incisive minds. Roebuck's father said his son was seen as "odd" in orthodox spheres, "whereas he is merely obscure and oblique." "He is an unconventional loner with an independent outlook on life, an irreverent sense of humour and sometimes a withering tongue," the elder Roebuck said in his son's 2005 autobiography "Sometimes I Forgot to Laugh". In his diary of a season "It Never Rains", Roebuck reflected on how strange it was "that cricket attracts so many insecure men." Roebuck filed a column published just hours before news of his death broke, urging Australia to hold their nerve following the "dumbfounding" events in the first Test against South Africa in which the visitors were shot out for just 47 in their second innings. "The team for the first Test against New Zealand has become harder to predict," Roebuck wrote, referring to the upcoming series. "Mind you, a lot can happen in a week. It just did." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Roebuck's last write-up: 'Mind you, a lot can happen in a week. It just did' 13 November 2011 tweet Email Print Cape Town, Nov.13 (ANI): Having acquired an iconic and awesome reputation for his writings on the sport of cricket, it is an irony of sorts and quite bizarre that in his last article before he died Saturday in a hotel room in Cape Town, South Africa, he wrote: "Mind you, a lot can happen in a week. It just did." The article focused primarily on the Australian team's disastrous outing at Newlands, Cape Town against South Africa, and what needed to be done. "Australian cricket is lucky that it has a few days of respite between the dumbfounding events at Newlands and its next engagement. The break gives coaches, selectors and captain the breathing space needed to collect their thoughts," said Roebuck. "The second Test gives the incumbents an opportunity to redeem themselves and the selectors a chance to study the trends," he added. He also said that there was no point in ditching players in response to public demand, as who knows, the replacements might not be any better, or ready. He predicted that Shaun Marsh would not be playing the Johannesburg Test because of a recurrence of his degenerative back problem, and said Usman Khawaja deserved the opportunity to take his place in the squad. He also describes left-arm fast bowler Mitchell Johnson, as the most frustrating cricketer in the country, someone who bowled without pace or swing at Newlands. "Since his inspired bursts in the Ashes Test in Perth he had not taken enough wickets to justify his retention. Nor has he scored enough runs since his blistering 123 in Cape Town 32 months ago to be deemed a handy lower-order batsman. Hopes have been dashed he might lead the attack until the next generation is ready," Roebuck said, a day before his tragic demise. He reveals that the collapse in Cape Town was no fluke. "These Australians have been weak against swing because they chase the ball rather than play it under their chin. Some get into poor positions. Apart from technical flaws, the collapses raised even more fundamental issues. How long can Shane Watson continue as a front-line bowler and opening batsman? History provides few instances of a cricketer able to sustain both workloads. The time is ripe to put him in the middle order," said Roebuck. He mentions the technical flaws of opener Phillip Hughes (bat still slides sideways and his shoulders are square); Ponting (missing straight balls because he is hurried and out of position); Brad Haddin (reckless and has a single match to turn around his fortunes) and Johnson (the most likely player to be dropped). (ANI) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fairfax Media describes iconic writer Roebuck's death as a 'Great shock' 13 November 2011 tweet Email Print Sydney, Nov.13 (ANI): Fairfax Media chief executive Greg Hywood on Sunday issued a statement that said the organization was in a state of "great shock" on hearing of the death of iconic cricket journalist Peter Roebuck in South Africa. The statement reads as follows: "It is with great shock that we have learnt today that Peter Roebuck has died in Newlands, South Africa. "Peter was not only an extremely gifted cricket writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, he was also one of Australia's most popular cricket commentators for the ABC. In his youth he played for the English county Somerset, then made his home in Australia. In recent years he built a reputation as one of the best columnists on the sport. "We extend our commiserations to his family and all who will mourn his passing." Publisher and editor-in-chief of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sun-Herald, Peter Fray, said: "We are saddened and shocked at this news. Peter was one of the finest cricket writers of his generation. His reporting and commentary were always fair, balanced, and insightful. "He will be missed by his colleagues at Fairfax and by his many fans in Australia and around the world." No further comment will be made at this stage. (ANI) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tributes flow for maestro of cricket writing, Peter Roebuck 13 November 2011 tweet Email Print Sydney, Nov.13 (ANI): Tributes continue to pour in for the maestro of cricket writing Peter Roebuck, who died in mysterious circumstances on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday at the age of 55. Former Test spinner and ABC cricket commentator Kerry O'Keeffe said: ''It is one of the saddest days in my life''. He described Roebuck as his radio colleague of 11 years. Roebuck, who wrote for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, was a man who not only loved the game, but analysed it better than anyone else, O'Keeffe told the ABC's Grandstand programme today. ''Nobody cut to the chase more succinctly and nobody saw how the game was and where it was heading better than Peter Roebuck,'' he said. "It's the most devastating news for so many out there. That voice. My chuckle is neither here nor there but Peter Roebuck's incisiveness and the way he delivered was the blueprint for our cricket commentary,'' said O'Keeffe who played played against Roebuck, a former captain for English county Somerset, during the 1977 Ashes tour. ''I think he played for a combined universities team. He had Coca-Cola bottle glasses and he read thick books, so we didn't have a lot in common,'' the Sydney Morning Herald quoted O'Keeffe, as saying. ''He rang me up virtually every week for the last 10 years or so to talk cricket and I used to put the phone down and have a deeper view of it after the conversation," he added. O'Keeffe recalled a story in the commentary box when he, Roebuck and broadcaster Jim Maxwell were filling in time during a rain break leading to the hourly bulletin. ''We were talking about IQs and I'd say mine is about in the 60s, I'd think Robey would be about 130, 140, without question,'' O'Keeffe said. ''And he'd say, 'I'm not concerned with triviality about IQs, Kerry, let's talk about the cricket'. ''And Jim was just wrapping up to take it to the news, Peter would say just before we go to the news, 'Kerry regarding the IQ, a touch conservative'.'' O'Keeffe said he loved Roebuck's ''vagueness''. One such example was his reference to pop star Lady Gaga as Lady Baba. O'Keeffe said he loved reading Roebuck's columns in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. ''He'd say, did you see the little dig I had in paragraph 42? And it was so subtle I didn't pick it up,'' O'Keeffe said. ''The audience will miss him but I think his fellow broadcasters will miss him more.''ews of Roebuck's death echoed across web. "My God. Just heard about Peter Roebuck. Loved working with him. Incisive. Erudite. Funny, " wrote Jonathan Agnew, BBC cricket commentator and former England bowler. "Shocking and sad news about Peter Roebuck. One of the two or three best writers on cricket in the world," said John Stern, former editor of The Wisden Cricketer. Lawrence Booth, editor of the Wisden Almanack said: ''Cricket has lost one hell of an intellect and a bloke who cared deeply about the game. I always read Peter Roebuck with complete admiration.'' Indian cricket journalist Harsha Bhogle tweeted: "peter roebuck was meant to write about cricket in the manner sachin tendulkar was born to play it". "Peter was not only an extremely gifted cricket writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, he was also one of Australia's most popular cricket commentators for the ABC," he Fairfax CEO Greg Hywood in a message to staff. "In recent years he built a reputation as one of the best columnists on the sport." (ANI)