Articles that Peter Roebuck wrote for the Melbourne newspaper, The Age.
10 March 1998. Sometimes it is best simply to sit back and enjoy. Cricket doesn’t come any better than this – a warm and vast crowd, superb young batsmen of contrasting styles at the crease and spinners ripping their fingers and racking their brains in an attempt to dislodge them. Inevitably, all eyes were upon […]
21 March 2001. Astonishing it is how often a top sportsman follows a poor performance with a strong showing. Setbacks are not allowed to linger in the body lest they fester. Rather, they become a motivation as the competitor tries to re-establish his position in the rankings. Such players do not like to let the […]
16 November 2010. At first sight it will seem that the selectors have lost the plot. Certainly they have invited ridicule. Over the years Australia has considered 16 players sufficient to cover an entire tour of England. Now 17 are required for a single match to be staged just up the road. But it’s not […]
25 November 2009. Shivnarine Chanderpaul is the most astonishing batsmen around, and among the finest. From his first outing for the West Indies in Georgetown in 1994 to his forthcoming 389th appearance, at the Gabba, he has batted by his own lights and been effective and entertaining. Remove his wicket cheaply and the job is […]
29 November 2009. Over the past three days Chris Gayle, Travis Dowlin and Adrian Barath, the hare, the tortoise and the colt, displayed the best and worst of West Indian cricket. Gayle once again betrayed his position and his talent with a craven and idle performance ill-befitting any Test batsman, let alone an opener and […]
22 December 2009. Australia are enduring a devastating injury crisis. In a matter of weeks, the ranks of fast bowlers have been decimated. Almost an entire Ashes attack has been sidelined. Ben Hilfenhaus, Peter Siddle, Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, none of then were available for selection in Perth. State teams have been fielding second and […]
24 December 2009. Two splendid pieces of bowling by two fine prospects were the highlight of a hard-fought 50-over match between old rivals played on a helpful surface. Between them Josh Hazlewood and James Pattinson took a stack of wickets and thereby gave heart to those worried that the pace bowling stocks are running low. […]
17th October 1998. Mark Taylor has joined Sir Donald Bradman as the highest scorer in a Test in the 115-year history of Australian cricket. They sit beside each other in the lists, a mountainous score bringing together two men with little in common save an innate determination to keep going. No-one, not Warwick Armstrong or […]
July 2005. A book could be written about Shane Warne’s first ball in Ashes cricket. Famously, it was the ball of the century, delivered with a rip of the fingers and snap of the wrist that sent the ball burning through the air and made it curl to leg before bouncing and turning prodigiously past […]
14 January 2010. Australian cricket has had another rewarding season. Certainly, the campaign has surpassed modest expectations. Everyone began with the sort of glum expression detected in lemon-tasters. Even marketeers with shiny faces were hard-pressed to muster any enthusiasm. Little was expected from visiting teams placed sixth and seventh in the rankings. Poor wretches, they […]
Australia has continued its slow dismantling of a fitful visiting team. Pakistan put up a fight on the third day, forming notable alliances for the fifth and 10th wickets and only between times suffering the sort of hot-headedness that has been its undoing. Accordingly the Australians were forced to work harder than expected to reinforce […]
9 December 2009. The West Indies can take considerable pride from their performance in Adelaide. Ordinarily, moral victories are little use to man or beast. A draw is a draw is a draw. Moreover, Australia has retained the Frank Worrell Trophy and flies to Perth one-up in the series. All things considered, though, it was […]
Mar 3, 2007: Bob Woolmer was a softly spoken cricketing philosopher with an observant, probing mind that penetrated numerous layers of the game without ever quite reaching the core. No-one who met him could dislike him yet few knew him intimately. Throughout he was in love with the game of bat and ball, endlessly thinking […]
Feb 27, 2007: John Duckett was hoovering as the bell rang, His fourth child was sleeping peacefully, blissfully unaware of the arrival of guests at the family home in Maroubra. Having completed his garbo round, John was attending to his duties. He likes working as a garbo because it keeps him fit and he finishes […]