Sydney: Australia's Fairfax Media has said that an inquest into the supposed suicide of journalist Peter Roebuck will be reopened.

Roebuck, who was one of the finest cricket writers, reportedly jumped to his death from a hotel while he was in Cape Town, South Africa, covering a Test series between the hosts and Australia in 2011.

The English-born journalist leapt out of a sixth floor window, according to South African police. The police had arrived at the hotel to arrest him over sexual assault allegations by a Zimbabwean man.

Roebuck's family did not accept the version of the police.

"There are many questions regarding the circumstances of his death which have to be probed," the family's lawyer George van Niekerk told Fairfax on Monday.

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

Another lawyer, David Hood, who had previously represented Roebuck, said, "It is important to all internationally recognised systems of justice that justice is not only done, but is seen to be done."

"That could never have been with the death of Peter Roebuck, unless and until the circumstances of his death were examined at a legally convened hearing held in public with witnesses called and questioned under oath," he added.

Roebuck had played first-class cricket in England, captaining Somerset county. He also represented Cambridge University and Devon teams.

(With inputs from agencies)