Peter Roebuck

Cape Town: Widely-respected cricket writer Peter Roebuck committed suicide here after police reportedly questioned him on allegations of sexual assault.

The 55-year-old British national, who captained Somerset in the 1980s, was in South Africa to cover the current series between the Proteas and Australia.

According to the Western Cape police, the incident occurred around 9:15 pm local time on Saturday. The writer died on impact.

There were reports that Roebuck had been spoken to by the police on Saturday night after which he appeared to be tense.

It was not clear why Roebuck had taken the extreme step but the police said, there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death.

However, international media reports say that he jumped from his hotel room on the sixth floor when a uniformed police officer was still present there.

A report in the Sydney Morning Herald, a newspaper in which Roebuck’s columns appeared regularly, said a detective and a uniformed police officer from the sexual crimes unit began speaking with him in his hotel room.

Roebuck then sought help from a fellow cricket journalist by saying, ‘Can you come down to my room quickly? I’ve got a problem.’'

Cape Town police captain Frederick van Wyk refused comment when asked if Roebuck was questioned over a sexual assault but Herald Sun, another Australian daily quoted a source as saying that police did question the cricket commentator.

“The police came to his room and wanted to speak to him. I’m told he was being questioned for sexual assault,” the source told Herald Sun.

Roebuck was in Cape Town to cover the Australia-South Africa series as a radio commentator for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Rahul Dravid said he was a keen follower of Roebuck because of his unique writing style. “He was a fantastic writer and commentator, one of the best. He was someone who was very opinionated, but was very independent. I looked forward to reading what he wrote about but more importantly how he wrote it. He had this incredible ability to use words to make the game of cricket and the players come alive. It was also wonderful that he loved India and coming to India,” Dravid said.

Ian Chappell said, “We didn't talk so much about the game, more about things around the game. Like corruption and things like Zimbabwe, which he felt pretty strongly about. I enjoyed reading his stuff, at times I read it and didn’t get the point, so he wasn’t exactly Bill ’Reilly. But he was a damn good writer, a colourful writer and he brought other things in life into it.”

Tony Greig paid tribute to Roebuck on his Twitter account. “The death of Peter Roebuck leaves the grass less green and cricket without its most effective investigative journalist,” wrote Greig.

Roebuck’s fellow commentator in ABC Radio, Kerry ’Keeffe described him as a “bookworm who loved the game”.

“Nobody analysed the game better, nobody cut to the chase more succinctly, and nobody saw where the game was going better,” ’Keeffe said

Cricket Australia also mourned Roebuck’s death. “He bought particular insight to his commentary based on his lengthy experience as a first-class cricketer and captain, and combined that with a singular flair for the written and spoken word. He spoke his mind frankly and while one didn’t necessarily always have to agree, you always respected what he had to say,” CA CEO James Sutherland said.

Cricket South Africa offered its condolences and said it had lost “a good friend.” Roebuck had been a harsh critic of South African cricket during the apartheid era, but had become one of the country’s “best supporters” since its transition to democracy, the CSA said.