Peter Roebuck Quote

Indian cricket, and the youngsters themselves, are dealing with issues inconceivable a few summers ago. Riches and all the attendant temptations are thrown at them before they have started shaving regularly. It's not their fault. It's no one's fault. That is the marketplace. Inevitably, though, it can distract attention from the long struggle towards mastery. Cricket does not give itself away; it expects players to apply themselves, to think and study and seek. It plays tricks, too, pretends that sixes and slower balls and the other shortcuts matter. Cricket sets traps, flatters players and calls them kings when they are barely princes.

Peter Roebuck

Indian cricket, and the youngsters themselves, are dealing with issues inconceivable a few summers ago. Riches and all the attendant temptations are thrown at them before they have started shaving regularly. It's not their fault. It's no one's fault. That is the marketplace. Inevitably, though, it can distract attention from the long struggle towards mastery. Cricket does not give itself away; it expects players to apply themselves, to think and study and seek. It plays tricks, too, pretends that sixes and slower balls and the other shortcuts matter. Cricket sets traps, flatters players and calls them kings when they are barely princes.

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About Peter Roebuck

Peter Michael Roebuck (6 March 1956 – 12 November 2011) was an English cricketer who later became an Australian newspaper columnist and radio commentator.
A consistent county performer with over 25,000 runs, and "one of the better English openers of the 1980s", Roebuck captained the English county side Somerset between 1986 and 1988. During 1989, Roebuck also captained an England XI one-day cricket team in two matches. His post-playing career as an erudite writer earned him great acclaim as a journalist with the Sunday Times and later as an author.
Roebuck died by suicide in Cape Town, South Africa, on 12 November 2011 after being asked by police to answer questions about an allegation of sexual assault. A book by Tim Lane and Elliot Cartledge titled Chasing Shadows – The Life and Death of Peter Roebuck was published in October 2015.