Peter Roebuck ... a tribute from his first African son
Peter Roebuck funded the education and well being of several underprivileged youth in Africa
Kanishkaa Balachandran
25-Feb-2013
Peter Roebuck funded the education and well being of several underprivileged youth in Africa. One such person lucky to cross Roebuck's path was Psychology Maziwisa, who met him in Harare during a Test match in 1999. Maziwisa recounts his experiences with Roebuck and how the friendship turned rocky when Masiwiza became associated with the Zanu-PF party. Read on in the Sydney Morning Herald.
It is no small thing to take anyone under one's wing and to proceed to nurture them with everything one has, including one's own resources. For what it's worth Peter had over 35 Zimbabweans in his capable care at the time of his death and my guess is that he had spent something in the region of $500,000 of his personal funds to help realise some African dreams. Put it this way: whatever the precise circumstances of his death he has left the world a better place.
Nearly 20 years ago, Roebuck wrote the foreword for David Frith's book By His Own Hand, which looks back at cricket's dark past with suicides. In the Independent, Frith writes that some of Roebuck's observations back then of the fragility of cricketers now seem haunting, in light of his death.
Most poignant of all now is to reflect on Roebuck's almost triumphant claim in that foreword: "Some people have predicted a gloomy end for this writer," he wrote of himself. "It will not be so."
In the Telegraph, Steve James remembers Roebuck as the man who inspired him to write about his county experiences and also to join university.
I remember what he said because I kept it written on a scrap of paper. I still have it to this day. “It is the stance of any man of dignity to try to be able to dictate to one’s employer, not let them dictate to you,” he said. “Getting a degree allows this to happen.”
Kanishkaa Balachandran is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo