He lends the weight of words to deeds that demand no less

Roebuck is born to write about cricket in the manner Tendulkar is born to play it: Harsha Bhogle

Peter Roebuck is born to write about cricket in the manner Sachin Tendulkar is born to play it. The right grammar,style,substance,and the occasional rasping statement that takes your breath away. Peter wraps cricket in fine clothing; he lends the weight of words to the deeds that a Tendulkar performs.

Indeed,I have long felt that the writer needs to look upon himself as a performer,in much the way the sportsman does. Peter does that. He will be the first to admit,though,that his barely legible scrawl did the words he meant to shape no credit at all! They deserved better,and when the impersonal typeface finally replaced the medieval shapes he created,it came almost as a relief.

Peter once told me of the twin loves in his life cricket and the English language. In his hands they forged a fine partnership,the equivalent of Greenidge and Haynes,Hayden and Langer. The relative timelessness of Test cricket,the sub-plots within the larger story,the personalities who seem to have enough time to pose for a writer,all create a game that demands the beauty of words and a writer to produce them. And yet the game suffers in its obsession with the end-of-day quote,coming from men who are far better at putting bat to ball. Peter bucks that trend and does so with a combination of defiance and beauty.

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I cant imagine Peter in a jacket and tie amidst the establishment at Lords. If I had to paint him,it would be in a loose shirt,slightly dreamy eyes beneath the glasses with his straw hat. He would be sitting in a corner of the press box,an occasional darting comment interrupting the words settling around his thoughts.

Extract from the introduction to Peter Roebucks autobiography,Sometimes I Forgot to Laugh,2004