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Another sad loss
Posted by bargepole on 13 November 2011 - 12:25pm.
for cricket - Peter Roebuck has been found dead in his hotel room in South Africa, where he was covering the current series with Australia - apparently suicide is suspected after an earlier unspecified police incident.
A fine batsman and an excellent journalist.
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A fine writer
...a good opening batsman, but over-fond of having other pieces of wood in his hand for inappropriate reasons. Let's hope it wasn't anything to do with his suspended sentence.
The contrarian commentator cricket needed
Also established a foundation supporting education for African youth and put everything he earned towards it.
There'll be plenty of prurient comment about his personal life but he was a force for good..
Roebuck
I personally don't think when you look into the evidence presented in court cases about him that you can say he was a force for good.
One of the great voices of the Australian summer
and I think underappreciated back in Blighty. Lovely article from Vic Marks (via Aggers on Twitter) in the Guardian today.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/nov/13/peter-roebuck-gifted-complex...
Speculation has already started
if you read the Aussie newspaper sites
His book
'It Never Rains' is one of the best books about cricket ever written.
I don't wish to know any more about his personal life than I already do, but I do find his death very sad.
Suicide
I've just been reminded by one of the online tributes to Roebuck that he wrote the foreword to David Frith's book about cricket suicides, 'By His Own Hand', in which he vowed that his life wouldn't end in that fashion. As he apparently threw himself off a sixth floor balcony it's very sad to say that he was wrong there.
Neither a fine batsman nor an excellent journalist
In my vho.
Well,
a career average of 37 from a period when most counties employed fearsome fast bowlers such as Roberts, Daniel, Procter, Clarke, Marshall etc would suggest that he could bat a bit.
Can't comment on his batting, or his
captaincy of Somerset, and I can't claim to know or want to know anything of his personal problems, but I will say I thought his writing was terrific, to the point that I barely ever read any of the other cricket writers, in the Sydney Morning Herald or anywhere else. He just seemed (to my extremely untrained and unqualified eye) to know what he was talking about and wasn't afraid to say what he thought. Particularly if it put noses out of joint. He could stick the boot in one day (entirely justifiably) and heap praise (if it was due) the next. All of which has been largely confirmed by most of the eulogies flying around.
his style of writing
had an elegance and almost olde worlde charm to it. Many tried to mimic it and couldn't.
This was an interesting article.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/cricket-loses-a-gifted-allrounder-2011...
Ouch
"He was a tall, spare, fit man who lived an austere, almost ascetic life, not indulging in such fripperies as deodorant."
Sad news
I saw him live on a couple of occasions, once against my beloved Kent when despite the presence of Botham and Richards, he stole the show with an innings of uncharacteristic belligerence In a one dayer at Canterbury. He is bound to be more remembered for his subsequent falling out with those two and Garner than for his exploits in the game.
He was a very good and insightful writer on cricket. His books and articles were always well crafted and sharply observed.
Oddly, the evident warmth and compassion of his writing seemed to surface rarely in his real life relationships and finally he became another of cricket's heroes who took their own life.
His training sessions
were always enjoyed by the young cricketers under his care
A pedant notes
Actually he wasn't found IN his hotel room, rather he jumped out of it while a policeman was questioning him.
It's obviously a sad day for those like me who quite liked his commentary and writing, but what's truly sad is that here's yet another intelligent public figure who can't find a solution to whatever it is that's making part of their life completely miserable.
A friend of mine committed suicide almost exactly a year ago, ironically on "Are You OK" day.
http://www.ruokday.com.au/content/home.aspx
Really shocked
when I heard this yesterday, brought back that fine Somerset side of the early 80's when they used to come up to Lords and whip a very fine Middlesex side, in one day games especially. He was a very fine journalist. Didn't know anything about all this personal stuff and would very much doubt Sir Beefy will have any words of sympathy.