Cricket: Prosecutors reopen inquest into death of cricket journalist Peter Roebuck

South African prosecutors have reopened Peter Roebuck's case. Photo / Getty

Prosecutors have reopened the inquest of former cricketer and journalist Peter Roebuck, seven years after his shock death.

It was claimed that Roebuck, who was the former Somerset cricket captain, died by suicide in 2011, aged 55, after falling from his hotel room in Cape Town where he was covering a Test series between Australia and South Africa.

His family, however, never accepted the conclusion Cape Town police came to with the family's lawyer, George van Niekerk, confirming on Sunday that the inquest had been reopened "at [their] behest".

"There are many questions regarding the circumstances of his death which have to be probed," van Niekerk told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"The reopened inquest will hopefully allow all the unresolved issues to be fully ventilated."

Roebuck's family were not invited to attend the inquest in 2013 which detailed the police account of events.

According to the original police version of events, Roebuck was dropped off at the entrance to the Southern Sun hotel at 8:50pm before he was arrested for allegations of sexual assault made against him by a young Zimbabwean man.

As police searched his room for evidence, Roebuck then allegedly jumped out of the sixth-floor window.

Since then, Roebuck's family have been trying to clear his name believing that new evidence and testimony would highlight inconsistencies in the original inquest.

They said a second inquest would shed new light on the reasons behind Roebuck's arrest and the circumstances of his death.

Roebuck skippered Somerset in the 1980s, after making his first-class debut in 1974 playing 335 four-day matches and 298 county one-day games, before beginning a long media career primarily working for Fairfax and the ABC.

He would regularly travel with the Australian cricket team and split the rest of his year living between Sydney and Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.