ABC cricket expert and newspaper columnist Peter Roebuck has died at the age of 55.
Roebuck was found dead at a hotel in Cape Town where he had been covering the two-Test series between Australia and South Africa.
He had reportedly been spoken to by police earlier and had been seen in an agitated state.
Police are now investigating Roebuck's death.
Roebuck captained English county team Somerset in the 1980s before becoming a respected commentator.
His shrewd analysis was a highlight of the ABC's cricket coverage and Grandstand manager Craig Norenbergs says Roebuck will be greatly missed.
"[It's] incredibly sad news," Norenbergs said.
"He was an integral part of the Grandstand commentary team and apart from being a magnificent print journalist.
"For us he could describe a game of cricket in such a way that even if you didn't like the game, you liked the way that he went about his business."
Norenbergs said Roebuck had been due to return to Australia over the summer.
"He was a much loved member, he'd worked for Grandstand for many, many years and we were looking forward to him being an integral member, as always, as part of our team for the upcoming summer and the series against New Zealand and India," he said.
Fellow cricket writer Gideon Haigh said Roebuck revolutionised the way the sport is covered.
"He was so fresh and so different and so off the reservation that he made it easier for all the writers who came after him," he said on ABC1's Offsiders program.
"Before we're overwhelmed by the tragedy of the death, I hope we recall the quality of the life and the quality of the work he was responsible for.
"I don't think anyone in cricket writing had a voice like Peter's when he arrived on the scene in the early 1980s.
"You only have to contrast the way we wrote about cricket in the 1970s to the way we write it now - Peter has been responsible I think for a lot of those developments."
But Haigh said Roebuck was also an outsider.
"And an outsider he remained - I think to the benefit of his writing, but perhaps in the end to his cost as a person," Haigh said.
Roebuck's father said his son was seen as "odd" in orthodox spheres, "whereas he is merely obscure and oblique".
"He is an unconventional loner with an independent outlook on life, an irreverent sense of humour and sometimes a withering tongue," the elder Roebuck said in his son's 2005 autobiography Sometimes I Forgot to Laugh.
Former Grandstand executive producer Caroline Davison said Roebuck was a man of conviction.
"He walked to the beat of his own drum and if he believed in something, it didn't matter whether the rest of the world agreed with what he believed in," she said.
"He was going to go with it and he would say it loudly and it would say it very proudly and he would also be able to substantiate what his opinions were.
"So it wasn't as if he threw something out there just for the sake of being a little bit different - he absolutely believed in what he said.
"I will always remember him with an enormous amount of affection, and an enormous amount of respect.
"I want him to always be remembered for the man that he was, for the amazing broadcaster/writer and also for being such an incredible philanthropist."
'The bard of summer'
Roebuck was also a regular columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers.
"Peter was a wonderful writer who was the bard of summer for cricket-loving Australians," Herald sport managing editor Ian Fuge said.
"He was also an extraordinary bloke who will be sorely missed."
BBC cricket commentator Jonathan Agnew was shocked by the news of Roebuck's death.
"My God. Just heard about Peter Roebuck. Loved working with him. Incisive. Erudite. Funny," he wrote on Twitter.
John Stern, former editor of The Wisden Cricketer said: "Shocking and sad news about Peter Roebuck. One of the two or three best writers on cricket in the world."
During his playing days Roebuck was a solid run-scorer for Somerset, passing 1,000 runs in nine out of 12 seasons.
He played 335 first-class matches, scoring 17,558 runs at an average of 37.27 with 33 centuries and a highest score of 221 not out.
Roebuck also took 72 wickets at 49.16.
He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1988.
Tags: cricket, sport, death, australia, south-africa First posted November 13, 2011 10:09:12
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