The club, along with Canowindra Cricket, had organised for Mr Roebuck to visit this Friday and Saturday, but instead have the bitter disappointment of cancelling the 'no show'.

Canowindra Rotarian John Newman said organisers of the visit needed 100 people to RSVP to the scheduled dinner this Friday, but with only 60, had no choice but to cancel.

"It's a terrible disappointment - the adults will miss out on hearing Peter and the junior cricketers will miss out on their workshop," Mr Newman said.

"Its not just Canowindra's children who will miss out, but those further afield who are assisted by Peter's Trust.

"Too often we hear people say the country misses out, but here we had the opportunity and it is lost.

"However, we just couldn't risk going ahead and not having the numbers. The apathy is the worst feature of this."

Roebuck, a former England cricketer, past captain of Somerset and now renowned cricket writer and commentator, was to conduct a junior cricket skills clinic and address a Rotary Club of Canowindra dinner.

He had developed a strong reputation for his speaking appearances and along with stories from his cricket career, was expected to outline the work he does with young and disadvantaged people in cricketing countries through his LBW Trust.

In recent months, Roebuck had performed similar clinics and speaking appearances in Cowra and proved a popular and entertaining guest.