Renowned cricket writer Peter Roebuck committed suicide in his hotel room South African police confirmed to AFP on Sunday.
England-born Roebuck, 55 and a former first class cricketer, was covering the ongoing Test series between South Africa and Australia.
Captain Frederik van Wyk, spokesman for the South African Police in the Western Cape province, confirmed that a British citizen had been found in his room having committed suicide.
"I can confirm that the incident took place at a quarter past nine on Saturday," said van Wyk.
"A 55-year-old British citizen was found dead in a hotel room in Newlands, Cape Town. He was working as a cricket commentator for an Australian publication. He committed suicide.
"An inquest docket has been opened for investigation. I cannot say more at the moment."
He wouldn't confirm media reports that Roebuck was spoken to by local police earlier on Saturday and that people had seen him in agitated state following that.
The hotel where Roebuck was staying issued a statement admitting that something had taken place but without going into detail.
"There was an incident that occurred at Southern Sun Newlands last night that is currently under full police investigation," it read.
"However, it is our policy at Southern Sun that we do not, under any circumstances, divulge any details regarding any of our guests."
Roebuck studied law at Cambridge and played 335 first-class matches before making a career writing about the sport, quickly establishing an avid following with his forthright, intelligent prose.
He regularly commentated for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and wrote for the nation's Fairfax newspapers.
Earlier story
Renowned cricket writer Peter Roebuck was found dead at his hotel in South Africa where he was covering Australia’s Test series with the Proteas, his employers said Sunday.
British-born Roebuck, 55, studied law at Cambridge and played 335 first-class matches before making a career writing about the sport, quickly establishing an avid following with his forthright, intelligent prose.
He regularly commentated for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and wrote for the nation’s Fairfax newspapers, and was covering the South African Test when he was found dead in a Newlands hotel, according to the media firms.
The circumstances of his death were not immediately clear, but the Sydney Morning Herald said he had reportedly been “spoken to by police earlier in the day”.
“Peter was a wonderful writer who was the bard of summer for cricket-loving Australians,” said Ian Fuge, the Herald’s sport managing editor.
“He was also an extraordinary bloke who will be sorely missed.”
Craig Norenbergs, head of the ABC’s Grandstand sports programme, described Roebuck’s death as “incredibly sad news.”
“He was an integral part of the Grandstand commentary team, apart from being a magnificent print journalist,” Norenbergs said.
“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.”
Roebuck, a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1998, captained English county side Somerset in the 1980s and turned out regularly for Devon after retiring from top-level cricket in 1991.
He penned several books on the sport and was a sometimes polarising figure known for his strong views and admired as one of cricket’s most articulate and incisive minds.
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”.
In his diary of a season “It Never Rains”, Roebuck reflected upon how strange it was “that cricket attracts so many insecure men.”
“It is surely the very worst game for an intense character, yet it continues to find many obtuse sensitivities among its players,” he said.
“Men of imagination, men of ideals risk its harsh exposures.”