Cricket journalist Peter Roebuck, an ABC and Fairfax radio commentator and writer, committed suicide in South Africa on Saturday night.

The Australian network and media outfit confirmed Roebuck's death in Newlands, Cape Town. Police found his body inside his hotel room and initially ruled out any foul play, but is nevertheless investigating the incident.

An Associated Press report said the former cricketer jumped to death from his room on the sixth floor of the Southern Sun Hotel after being questioned by police about a sexual assault.

Roebuck was in Cape Town to cover the Test series between South Africa and Australia for ABC. Cricket Australia chief James Sutherland was shocked upon learning that the 55-year-old 1988 Wisden Cricketer of the Year and former Somerset captain died just hours after meeting the team.

Fairfax and ABC were saddened by Roebuck's death.

"Peter was not only an extremely gifted cricket writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, he was also one of Australia's most popular cricket commentators for the ABC. In recent years he built a reputation as one of the best columnists on the sport," Fairfax chief Greg Hywood Hywood said, according to AFP.

"Peter was a wonderful writer who was the bard of summer for cricket-loving Australians. He was an extraordinary bloke who will be sorely missed," said Roebuck's managing editor at Fairfax newspaper the Sydney Morning Herald, Ian Fuge, according to AAP.

"He was an integral part of the Grandstand commentary team, apart from being a magnificent print journalist," said Craig Norenbergs, head of the ABC's Grandstand sports programme.

The right-handed batsman started his career as a cricketer at 13 with Somerset's second eleven. He entered regular first-class cricket in 1974 retiring in 1991 after 335 matches and 17,558 runs.

Roebuck was captain of the English county side Somerset from 1986 to 1988 and England XI in 1989. He began writing columns in 1983 and established a philanthropic organization in 2006 to help students from cricket-playing countries finish college education.

Roebuck was an Australian citizen and lived both in Sydney's Bondi and the Straw Hat Farm in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. He was a loner and detached from his family.

Peter Roebuck