Keith Stackpole, who passed away in Australia on Tuesday, not only loved notching up centuries at the start of a series, but also didn’t believe in being adhesive at the crease in his nine-season Test career
Australia’s Keith Stackpole hits England pace great John Snow for a boundary during the first Test at Old Trafford, Manchester, on June 9, 1972. Pic/Getty Images
When Virender Sehwag was belting his way to 195 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Boxing Day in the 2003-04 Test against Australia, the Aussie pundits (which included former players in the media lounge) were reminded of how their former opening batsman Keith Stackpole went about pulverising the opposition bowlers in his heyday.
Stackpole just smiled when I conveyed their views to him. I don’t remember him showing any regret when Sehwag threw caution to the wind and got dismissed five runs short of a double century on Day One of a Test match. He probably would have done the same.
Stackpole passed away in Victoria at the age of 84 on Tuesday.
While it is rare for visiting teams to win a Test series in India (the last time an Australian did that was in 2004-05), it must be said that Stackpole played a good hand in Australia’s 3-1 series win on these shores in 1969-70.
Stackpole’s name figures on the honours board at the Cricket Club of India for his 103 in the opening Test which helped Australia dictate terms in the series although they lost the Delhi Test after the draw in Kanpur.
In the first innings of the third Test in the Capital, his 61 was Australia’s second highest top score after Ian Chappell’s 138.
The Brabourne Stadium hundred of course was rated highly. “Pataudi [India skipper] realising that containment was his only hope, brought on the restrictive Bedi and the mechanical Abid Ali. Restriction was not quite possible as Stackpole using his weight, played off the back foot, back-cutting and square-cutting with power,” wrote the late journalist Rajan Bala his 1970-published book Kiwis and Kangaroos.
Stackpole wrote a book titled Not Just for Openers. He dwelled on the challenges that tour of India threw up. The conditions were confronting and the Australians felt that the umpiring and accommodation was sub-standard. The Brabourne Stadium, where teams were put up, got some flak in Not Just for Openers: “We were told that someone from the Australian Embassy had gone through all the cities we were to play, checking the accommodation. But I should say no side to tour India should stay at Branbourne (sic) again. It’s hard enough to play Test cricket outside your country: if the accommodation is not good it’s a damn sight harder. We should have stayed at the Taj Mahal Hotel or the Royal Yacht Club the whole time we were in Bombay.”
When I asked him to autograph his 1974 book for me at Melbourne in 2000, he took his time and wrote: “Don’t take too much notice of its contents. I was pretty screwed up with the game when I wrote it [book]. Best wishes Stacky.”
The impact of a three-figure knock in the opening Test of a series can never be exaggerated and Stackpole did it in four of the 11 Test series he was part of, apart from the Australia vs Rest of the World Series which opened at Brisbane in November-December 1971.
If experts believe that the 2-2 result in the 1972 Ashes in England was a turning point in Australian cricket (the nucleus of that team didn’t experience a series loss till 1976-77), then Stackpole played a big part in it. As Ian Chappell’s deputy in England, he scored 485 runs across five Tests. His 627 runs in the previous Ashes in 1970-71 ended up in a lost cause. It was during this series that his fellow Victorian and opening partner Bill Lawry was sacked as captain. Stackpole didn’t hold back from expressing what he thought about the way Lawry was dumped; none of the selectors told him about it. “To me, the way it was done to the captain of Australia was pathetic, really. In Adelaide at that time was Sir Donald Bradman, chairman of selectors, and all he had to do was show Bill the courtesy of making a five-cent phone call. He could have said, ‘Look Bill, I thought I’d give you a ring to say you have been dropped. We’ve decided to go along with Chappell and have a little bit more aggressive policy for the last Test. Thanks for all you’ve done in the past.’ We just couldn’t believe it. We came home to Melbourne, and of course, all the Pressmen were at the airport, and typically Phanto [Lawry’s nickname] took it on the chin,” Stackpole wrote.
Starting his Test career in the 1965-66 Ashes, he began opening the batting from the Sydney Test of the 1968-69 home series against the West Indies.
Stackpole played the last of his 43 Tests against New Zealand in 1973-74 at Auckland, where he got a pair. While that must have been gutting, Stackpole exited international cricket with the satisfaction of being an absolute team man under the Baggy Green cap in a career that witnessed 2807 runs at 37.43. These figures are more flattering when one considers that he couldn’t see with his left eye (in his own words, ‘blind as a bat’ there).
Stackpole forged a successful media career after he gave up opening the innings to thrash fast bowlers and Richie Benaud often followed his summary of the day in the Channel Nine highlights package with the mention of Stackpole being in the commentary box with another commentator. Many of us miss waking to the voices of Channel Nine’s commentators. We’ll miss Keith Stackpole, too.
mid-day’s group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance.
He tweets @ClaytonMurzello. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper.
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