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Noted cricket writer Roebuck commits suicide
Reports say police questioned him on allegations of sexual assault & he appeared tense

Cape Town, November 13
Widely respected cricket writer Peter Roebuck, who has considerable following in India, 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 this country to cover the current series between South Africa and Australia.

According to the Western Cape South Africa police, the incident occurred last night around 9.15 pm local time. The writer died on impact.

There were reports that Roebuck had been spoken to by the police last 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 even as 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 about 9 pm.

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 to comment when asked if Roebuck was questioned about a sexual assault, but the ‘Herald Sun’ quoted a source as saying that police did question the cricket commentator about such allegations.

Roebuck, Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1988, made 17,558 runs at 37.27, with 33 centuries. He also led an England team to defeat against Holland and retired from top-level cricket in 1991. — PTI

know the man

Roebuck was born to two school teachers in Oxford on March 6, 1956, and was one of their six children. He studied law at Cambridge and played 335 first-class matches before deciding to make a career in writing on cricket.