<H1><b>PETER ROEBUCK TRAGEDY - SOCIETY - AND SPORT SHOULD BE CONDEMNED, NOT ROEBUCK!</b></H1>

In the aftermath of Peter Roebuck's death and the stories which have been written trying to explain the inexplicable, several issue stand out.

To me, the main issue is homophobia, and this is followed by homophobia in sport, and this again is followed by homophobia in the world of cricket.

If anybody has read about people coming out as gay, lesbian or transgender in the cricketing world, then it seems not to have been in the public arena.

Many areas of sport have produced episodes which have made those sporting bodies challenge their built-in homophobia - not that it has necessarily made all that much difference, but it has brought matters out into the open.

Sports such as tennis, rugby of all codes, swimming, and possibly other sports which need more public airing, have been given a certain amount of publicity which shows just how far we still have to go to obtain equality in the world of homophobia in which we live.

An article in The Age newspaper a few days ago about Roebuck and his life, including stories of his "abuse" of young men who are sponsored by him for educational and sporting opportunities. Roebuck is accused of smacking them on their bare buttockses and other forms of abuse. Nowhere does it state that the young men are 16 years of age or younger - in fact mostly they seem to have been in their early to late 20s, big enough and strong enough to have withstood the abuse and being able to fight back. No stories of this nature have appeared in the public arena.

The letters in the Sunday Age of 8 January 2012 are particularly foul in the accusations made about this unfortunate man who was brought up and lived in a time of acute homophobia and who got involved in a sport which ought to hang its head in shame at its total silence on the issue of homophobia in sport in general and cricket in particular.

In recent years there has been some sort of liberalising in our social relationships in regard to gay, lesbian, transgender and HIV/AIDS issues and the people who happen to be part of these groups who have had more opportunities for self-expression than those of us born 50, 60, 70, 80 years ago.

But we still have such a long way to go.

And yet another few conspiracy theories which may well need more investigating:

1) What were the South African police doing, leaving only one with Roebuck in his hotel room, while the other went out, ostensibly with Jim Maxwell who was answering Roebuck's distress call?

2) Because so many of the young men Roebuck was dealing with in his hostel and elsewhere were Zimbabweans and Mugabe's influence with South Africa's politicians is easily investigated, did Mugabe have something to do with the police investigating the complaint made by a young Zimbabwean against Roebuck?

These are but a few of the unanswered questions, but there are many more.

Peter Roebuck may have been a gay man, but remained in the closet due to the circumstances of the sport and people he was involved with in his professional life.

Shame on so many of them for the role they have played in being silent on the issue of homophobia in thier sport of cricket~