‘If you had a son like Keith Stackpole you'd be very proud': Bill Lawry's heartfelt tribute to ‘Stacky'

Sydney Morning Herald

24-04-2025

'It was Keith Stackpole snr,' Lawry recalled to this masthead. 'He said to the captain, 'Mind if I speak to the lad who opened up?'.
'He said, 'Son, never play forward on a wet wicket, always play back'. That was my first introduction to the Stackpoles. Years later we're playing as teammates, which is quite unbelievable.'
Picked initially as a middle-order batter who could bowl leg-spin, Stackpole flourished after being moved to the top of the order by Lawry for the Sydney Test against the West Indies in the 1968-69 series.
The pair, with vastly different styles, became one of the finest opening combinations Australia had seen. Stackpole's hard hitting and love of the hook shot – his feature stroke – was in contrast to Lawry's less expansive game.
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Lawry joked the move was a 'backward step' for him. Stackpole, he said, was not quick between the wickets, and Lawry loved to push and run.
'Short singles wasn't in his vocabulary,' Lawry said. 'He said at the end of his career, 'I cost you a few runs'. I said, 'It doesn't matter, you were a bloody good player'.'
Asked how many runs Stackpole had cost him, Lawry said with a laugh: 'I wouldn't want to be quoted on that.
'I wasn't smart enough to run him out. I should have run him out occasionally. On one hand, he cost me, but on the other hand he made it a lot easier because the scoreboard was always ticking over.
''Stacky' would be a sensation today in this limited-overs caper. He was a tremendous striker of the ball. If someone bowled a half-pitched ball wide of me first ball in a Test match, I'd shoulder arms, watch it go through and read the brand of the ball. 'Stacky' would pin back his ears and thrash it through gully for four.'
As non-drinkers, they, along with the late Ian Redpath, who died late last year, shared a bond in a dressing room where most player did not mind a beer.
Lawry's fondest memories of Stackpole came when both had retired and were part of Nine's inaugural commentary team during Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket revolution. Like Lawry, Stackpole forged a distinguished career behind the microphone, first with Nine and then the ABC.
One of their traditions came during the Sydney Test when Richie Benaud and his wife Daphne would invite the pair for dinner.
'We used to really look forward to that,' Lawry said. 'Richie was a man who gave nobody anything, but he'd start talking about the players in the past. We were fascinated. At 9pm, he'd get up and say, 'Righto, Lawry and Stackpole, the taxi's booked for 9.15, I'm going to bed. It was exciting times for us right to the end'.'
An aggressive opening batter, Stackpole was an important member of the Australian sides captained by Lawry and Ian Chappell from 1966 to 1974. His record of 2807 runs at 37.42 with seven centuries did not do justice to his contribution to the team.
'When he got away, he'd put you in a position where you could win,' Lawry said.
On the successful tour of India in 1969, Stackpole topped the averages with 368 runs at 46. That series was to be Australia's last win in India until Ricky Ponting's Australian team, captained in-part by Adam Gilchrist, conquered what was seen as the final frontier in 2004.
Stackpole, who had been Chappell's vice captain, received global acknowledgment when he was named Wisden 's Cricketer of the Year in 1973. More locally, he also won the Ryder Medal three times as the best player in Melbourne's district cricket competition.
Stackpole described his WSC commentary stint as 'apart from playing the game, the most exciting time of my cricket life', he wrote in Austin Robertson's book Cricket Outlaws.
'The two seasons of WSC were like working on an adventure in the unknown.'
He was a mentor to late great Victorian batter Dean Jones, who played for Australia in the 1980s and '90s, and the man who replaced Jones as the face of Victorian cricket, fellow batter Brad Hodge.
As a key figure at Carlton, Stackpole helped usher through Jones, then a precocious young talent who would go on to forge a strong Test career and be remembered as one of the great one-day international batters.
Cricket Australia chairman Mike Baird and his Cricket Victoria counterpart Ross Hepburn paid tribute to a man they said 'played the game with great spirit and remained a devoted ambassador for cricket long after his playing days were over'.
'Keith was one of the great contributors to the game of cricket and his legacy will live long into the future. Not only was he an outstanding player for Australia and Victoria, his work in the media, radio and TV commentary and as a mentor to many players who followed in his footsteps demonstrated his enduring passion and influence in the game,' Baird said.
'It is testament to his talent and standing that he was one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1973 and was awarded the MBE in 1974 for services to cricket.'