Peter Michael Roebuck was an
English cricketer
who achieved later renown as an Australian newspaper columnist and
radio commentator. A consistent county performer with over 25,000 runs,
and "one of the better English openers of the 1980s",
[1] Roebuck captained the English county side
Somerset between 1986 and 1988. During 1989, Roebuck also captained an
England XI one-day cricket team in two matches.
[2] His post-playing career as an erudite writer earned him great acclaim as a journalist with the
Sunday Times and later as an author.
[1] Roebuck committed suicide in
Cape Town,
South Africa, on 12 November 2011 after being asked by police to answer questions about an allegation of sexual assault.
[3]
(6 March 1956 – 12 November 2011)
Early life
Roebuck was born in the village of
Oddington,
[4] outside Oxford, on 6 March 1956, the son of two schoolteachers and one of six children; he attended
Millfield School where his mother was a mathematics teacher and his father an economics teacher. The headmaster,
Jack Meyer, a former Somerset CCC Captain, had offered his parents employment at the school so that they could afford the fees.
[5]
Meyer was an unconventional Headmaster who wanted to encourage cricket
talent. On entering Meyer's office for the interview for admission,
Roebuck found an orange flying through the air towards him; he caught
it, and in his book,
It Never Rains, speculated whether he would have got in to Millfield if he had dropped it. He later studied law at
Emmanuel College at the
University of Cambridge, graduating with first class honours in 1977.
[4] However he never practised law, finding it too confining.
[4]
Cricket career
Roebuck was a right-handed batsman, often used as an opener, and occasionally bowled right-arm
offspin.
He played for Somerset's second eleven at the age of 13 and regular
first-class cricket from 1974 until his retirement in 1991. He later
played
Minor Counties cricket for
Devon.
In 335 first-class matches he scored 17,558 runs at an average of
37.27, making 33 centuries with a highest score of 221*, and took 72
wickets at 49.16. In 298 one-day matches, he scored 7244 runs at 29.81
while taking 51 wickets at 25.09.
[6]
On the county circuit, Roebuck's nickname was Rupert. This arose when
the Essex captain, Keith Fletcher, once addressed him as Rupert, in the
mistaken belief that it was actually his name.
[7]
In 1988 Roebuck was named as one of the
Wisden Cricketers of the Year.
[8]
1986 controversy
Roebuck became a controversial figure in 1986 when, at the end of his
first season as captain of Somerset, he was instrumental in the
county's decision not to renew the contracts of its two overseas
players,
Viv Richards and
Joel Garner, whose runs and wickets had brought the county much success in the previous eight years.
Roebuck and his supporters argued that both Richards and Garner were
now ageing, that individually and collectively their contributions had
declined dramatically and that younger overseas and home-grown players
should be recruited to replace them. They cited the recent performance
of the team in the
County Championship
— namely, bottom in 1985 and next-bottom in 1986 — and their failure in
one-day competitions since winning the NatWest Bank Trophy in 1983.
It should also be understood that a change in the TCCB (Test and
County Cricket Board) regulations meant that only one overseas player
would be allowed in each county team rather than two as previously -
meaning that Somerset would not be able to field both Richards and
Garner.
Opposition to the decision not to re-employ Richards and Garner came loudest from Somerset's English-born star, the all-rounder
Ian Botham, who refused a new contract for himself and joined
Worcestershire. In the event, under Roebuck's captaincy and with
Martin Crowe of New Zealand and
Steve Waugh
of Australia as overseas players, Somerset improved a little in 1987,
though they remained among the weaker counties for a further six
seasons. After many years of bitterness and the eventual removal of
Roebuck from the club, Richards was honoured with the naming of a set of
entrance gates and a stand after him at the
County Ground, Taunton.
Post-cricket career
Commentator and journalist
His journal of the 1983 season,
It Never Rains, established him as one of cricket's finest journalists.
[9]
Roebuck wrote columns for
The Sydney Morning Herald,
The Age (Melbourne) and
ESPNcricinfo, as well as commentating for the
ABC
radio cricket coverage in Australia. He was known for wearing his
trademark straw sunhat at all times, even in the commentary box.
[10]
He felt there was too much nationalism in cricket writing and it
should be avoided when analysing the game. He was one of the few global
voices in the game without allegiance to any nation, team or player.
[9]
He was one of the last journalists in cricket to acquire a laptop and mobile phone and found them quite useful.
[11]
Roebuck was often critical of the Australian cricket team and, in particular, the Australian captain
Ricky Ponting. Following Australia's narrow victory in the
second Test against India at the
Sydney Cricket Ground
in 2007–08, Roebuck accused the Australians of "bad sportsmanship and
triumphalism", describing the Australian team as a "pack of wild dogs"
and claiming that Ponting has "shown not the slightest interest in the
well-being of the game, not the slightest sign of diplomatic skills, not
a single mark of respect for his accomplished and widely admired
opponents."
[12]
Roebuck was described as an astute judge of cricketers, a contrarian,
and a master wordsmith, and his writing was described as lean, erudite,
fluent, perceptive and vibrant.
[10][11]
Philanthropy
In 2006, Roebuck established the Learning for a Better World Trust
(LBW) to help students from cricket-playing developing countries to
complete tertiary education.
[10][13][14] He resigned from the Trust in 2008.
[4]
In addition to supporting the LBW Trust, Roebuck spent A$100,000 of his
own money to help put African youths through high school and
university.
[15]
Psychology Maziwisa, a Zimbabwean lawyer Roebuck had mentored and whose
education he had funded, wrote a tribute in which he stated that
Roebuck had over 35 Zimbabweans in his care at the time of his death,
and he had spent approximately $500,000 of his own money to "realise
African dreams".
[16]
Personal life
Roebuck spent his last years residing in Straw Hat Farm,
Pietermaritzburg,
South Africa, as well as
Bondi,
Sydney,
Australia, where he owned two houses.
[17][18] He grew estranged from England,
[11][19] but kept in regular touch with his mother and siblings.
[4] He became an Australian citizen.
[20] His colleague
Malcolm Knox
said of Roebuck that "nothing could rile him more, after he became an
Australian citizen, than to be described as an Englishman of any kind,
even a former one."
[21]
In 2005 Roebuck's father wrote that Peter is an "unconventional loner
with an independent outlook on life, an irreverent sense of humour and
sometimes a withering tongue."
[15]
He was a solitary and complex man
[10] who preferred to read a book while eating alone rather than spend time in the company of his colleagues.
[22]
Assault conviction
In 1999, while working as a commentator in South Africa, Roebuck met
three cricketers, all aged 19, and offered to coach them, inviting them
to live at his home in England. He warned them beforehand that he would
use
corporal punishment if they failed to obey his "house rules". He
caned all three men on their (clothed)
buttocks at different times for misbehaviour and in 2001 was given a suspended
jail sentence after pleading guilty to three charges of common assault.
[19] He told the court, "Obviously I misjudged the mood and that was my mistake and my responsibility and I accept that."
[23]
Henk Lindeque, one of Roebuck’s victims, said, "The problem was not so
much that he caned us but wanted to examine the marks. That’s when I
decided to get out of his house."
[24] Lindeque stated that he held no ill will toward Roebuck and was saddened to hear of his death.
[19]
Death
Roebuck arrived in Cape Town, South Africa, on 7 November 2011 to report on a
Test Match between South Africa and Australia for
The Sydney Morning Herald and the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
[25] He was staying at the
Southern Sun Hotel in
Newlands, Cape Town, on 12 November, when
South African Police entered the hotel, claiming to desire to speak to him about an alleged sexual assault on a 26-year-old Zimbabwean man.
[26][27] The man had alleged that Roebuck had "groomed" him through
Facebook,
asking him to "bring [a] stick in case I need to beat you" once they
had arranged to meet. At their claimed meeting Roebuck allegedly pinned
the man to a hotel bed and sexually assaulted him, leaving him feeling
suicidal.
[27]
After requesting that he be allowed to go to his room to change his clothes, Roebuck called the
ABC's
Jim Maxwell in his hotel room and asked him to find him a lawyer and to then come to his hotel room.
[28]
At 9.15pm, Roebuck died after falling from the sixth floor of the Southern Sun Hotel.
[29] He landed on the awning outside the entrance to the hotel,
[30]
causing what was described by Australian cricket writer, Peter Lalor,
who later saw Roebuck's body at the mortuary, as "serious head trauma".
[31] Roebuck's body was taken to the Salt River State mortuary in the early hours of the next morning.
[31] A statement issued by South African police stated that Roebuck had committed
suicide[9] and that an
inquest into the matter would be held.
[32]
Students residing at Roebuck's farm in Natal, where he lived for six
months of every year, stated that no corporal punishment was meted out
at the residence.
[33]
A law graduate who speaks for the housemates at Straw Hat Farm said of
the sexual assault allegation: "This is not the Peter we knew."
[33]
In January 2012 Australian journalist
Adam Shand published extensive research on Roebuck's dealings with the young men who lived with him in South Africa.
[34]
Legacy
Roebuck was
Ed Cowan's
mentor and former teacher at Cranbrook School. Cowan's maiden Test
century came in the First Test between Australia and South Africa at the
Gabba, Brisbane, on 12 November 2012, a year to the day after Roebuck's
death. Cowan dedicated the century to Roebuck's memory.
[35]
Publications
- Slices of Cricket Unwin, (1982) ISBN 0-04-796088-4, ISBN 978-0-04-796088-8
- It Never Rains: A Cricketer's Lot, Unwin, (1984) ISBN 0-04-796096-5; ISBN 978-0-04-796096-3;
- It Sort of Clicks, (with Ian Botham) (1986) ISBN 0-947072-32-2, ISBN 978-0-947072-32-2
- Great Innings, Blitz (1990) ISBN 1-85605-121-8, ISBN 978-1-85605-121-7
- Tangled Up In White: Peter Roebuck On Cricket, Hodder & Stoughton, (1992) ISBN 0-340-56618-3, ISBN 978-0-340-56618-3
- From Sammy to Jimmy: History of Somerset Country Cricket Club, Partridge Press (1991) ISBN 1-85225-085-2, ISBN 978-1-85225-085-0
- Sometimes I Forgot to Laugh, (autobiography) Allen & Unwin (2004) ISBN 1-74114-389-6
- It Takes All Sorts: Celebrating Cricket's Colourful Characters, Allen & Unwin, (2005) ISBN 1-74114-542-2
- In It To Win It: The Australian Cricket Supremacy Allen & Unwin, (2006) ISBN 1-74114-543-0
To see more of who died in 2011
click here
Margit Bjørløw Brandt [1] was a Danish fashion designer.
