Henk Lindeque lifts the lid on the secret life of a cricket master Peter Roebuck

Caned by Peter Roebuck ... Henk Lindeque (inset). Picture: The Daily Telegraph

A MAN who was caned on the buttocks by Peter Roebuck has described the turbulent year he spent being coached by the former first class cricketer and respected journalist.
South African Henk Lindeque, speaking in Cape Town just days after Roebuck threw himself from a window while being questioned by police over an alleged sexual assault, said his former coach had "a brilliant mind" but "a different way of communicating".
Mr Lindeque, now 31, was in the UK with Taunton cricket club when the incident occurred in 1999. Roebuck received a suspended jail sentence in 2001 for common assault after pleading guilty to caning Lindeque and his South African teammates Keith Whiting and Reginald Keats, The Daily Telegraph reported.

"He had a few canes, some were a fair piece of willow if you can call it that," Mr Lindeque said yesterday.
"He hit me through my shorts and it hurt a hell of a lot.
"After he caned me, he wanted to have a look at the markings and that wasn't something I approved of and that's why I never had any contact with him after that. It was really sore. He said, 'Don't be shy, let's have a look'. I pulled off a bit (of his shorts) to one side and he said, 'No, c'mon, don't be shy' and I pulled my shorts down very briefly."
He recalled how on another occasion Roebuck encroached on his "personal space".
"One day, I was sitting on the couch at Peter's house, watching cricket on a Sunday afternoon," he said.
"He sat down and put his arm around me. I turned around to him and said, 'Listen Peter, I do like my personal space and I don't like this'. I moved away quickly and sat on the ground. That's the only time I felt he made a sort of advance on me.
"In the back of my mind it was something that stuck with me (that Roebuck might be gay).
"It was a possibility, but he never came out, so how are we to know? He was eccentric. I wouldn't say he was harsh or indifferent, but he had a different way of communicating.
"He did warn us he had hard ways and in many senses that's not a bad way to look at life, especially in cricket."
Mr Lindeque said he held no ill will toward Roebuck and was saddened to hear of his death.