Peter Roebuck

Peter Michael Roebuck was an English cricketer, who was born in Oddington, Oxfordshire, England, on March 6th, 1956.  One of six children, his younger brother Paul played 22 first-class matches for Cambridge University, Gloucestershire, and Glamorgan.  Peter played, mostly-notably, for Somerset County Cricket Club between 1974 and 1991, a team he also captained.  Mainly used as an opening batsman, Roebuck played a total of 335 first-class matches for Somerset, scoring 17,558 runs at an average of 37.27 with 33 centuries and a highest score of 221 not out.  He also took 72 wickets at an average of 49.16 with his spin bowling.  In 298 one-day games, he scored 7,244 runs at 29.81, and took 51 wickets at 25,09.  Captaining Somerset for two seasons between 1986 and 1988, Roebuck became a controversial figure when he was instrumental in terminating the contracts of the county's two overseas stars, Joel Garner and Viv Richards.  The ensuing rumpus resulted in star all-rounder Ian Botham leaving the club for Worcestershire.  In 1988, Roebuck was one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year.  Whilst working as a commentator in South Africa in 1999, Roebuck met three young black cricketers, offering to coach them whilst they lived at his home in England.  He warned them beforehand that he would use corporal punishment if they broke his "house rules".  He caned all three 19-year-old men at different times on their clothed buttocks for misbehaviour, and in 2001 was given a suspended jail sentence for common assault.  After a ten-year spell playing Minor Counties cricket for Devon between 1992 and 2002, Roebuck moved to Australia, where he became a respected cricket writer and broadcaster.  He became an Australian citizen, and also owned a house in South Africa.  On November 12th, 2011, Roebuck was visiting South Africa to report on a cricket match, when police arrived at his hotel, desiring to speak to him about an alleged sexual assault on a 26-year-old Zimbabwean man.  Roebuck then returned to his hotel room, where he jumped from his sixth-floor balcony.  He subsequently died from severe head injuries.  He was 55 years old.