23-04-2025
Keith Stackpole obituary: swashbuckling Australian Test batsman
The bars at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) would empty when Keith Stackpole purposefully strode out to the wicket. In the late Sixties and early Seventies, the Australian was one of the great swashbucklers of Test cricket, notably putting England bowlers to the sword, hooking and cutting anything short, and boldly moving forward to drive, especially on the onside.
Square-shouldered and burly, he could never be stylish, but he believed in attacking from the start, and relished facing fast bowling. While the stolid Bill Lawry, with whom he often opened the batting for Australia, blocked, blocked and blocked, Stackpole made his luck, as edges flew over or wide of the field — usually to the boundary.
'Stacky' overcame the handicap of being virtually blind in his
