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Keith Stackpole, the former Australian opener, has given up his commentary position with the ABC. Stackpole, 64, had been part of ABC Radio’s coverage for more than two decades, but announced that yesterday’s clash between Victoria and Queensland would be his last.Stackpole has also worked for the Seven and Nine television networks, and is expected to continue with his newspaper columns. One of his fellow commentators at the ABC, Dan Lonergan, spoke about Stackpole to . “He commentated the way he played the game: on the front foot and aggressively,” he said. “There will be a lot of people out there who will miss him, but Keith has obviously decided it’s time for someone else to have a go.”Stackpole played his first Test in 1965-66 as a middle-order batsman who bowled legbreaks, but was pushed up the order by Bill Lawry. Stackpole represented Australia in 43 matches, scoring 2807 runs with seven hundreds at 37.

As this captivating series closed, Peter English looked back at the months of pre-Ashes hype when Australia were supposed to win 5-0 and Ashley Giles would have been lucky to turn a door handle. Instead the teams left The Oval with England clutching the urn and clumps of players and commentators forgetting their series predictions

The weird and wacky

Terry Alderman
“I definitely believe if any of our batsmen get out to Giles in the Tests they should go and hang themselves. But I’m confident that won’t happen.” , Sydney
“What’s worse than a whingeing Englishman? Gloating Pommies. One day we’ll lose the Ashes and it will be as horrific as waking up after a night on the drink in a room full of images of Camilla Parker Bowles.”Glenn McGrath
“I think I was saying 3-0 or 4-0 about 12 months ago, thinking there might be a bit of rain around. But with the weather as it is at the moment, I have to say 5-0.”Ricky Ponting
“We want to win every game we play in and if we do that and we have created some momentum then all well and good, but I don’t take a lot out of one-day series. Test cricket is a different game, there will be a few changes of personnel so we will have to see how it goes.”Neil Harvey on going through undefeated
“With Steve Waugh’s team and during the last ten years when England have been down, they still weren’t able to do it and I’m not sure why. They should do it this year, I reckon. They are not playing many games, let’s face it.”Jeff Thomson
“Hoggard’s like a net bowler when you compare him to McGrath and Kasprowicz.”Darren Lehmann
“Harmison and Flintoff have looked the part in the one-dayers, but on Test-match wickets I don’t see England having enough firepower to take the 20 wickets. Matthew Hoggard has to come into the equation, but if England are going to stand a chance, Flintoff and Harmison not only have to have a good series with the ball, they have to have an unbelievable series.”

The wrong

Ian Healy
“This England team, while they are better and on track, I can’t see them beating this Australian team in a game.”Jeff Thomson“England will lose the five-Test series 3-0 and the margin will be worse for them if it doesn’t rain. If you put the players from Australia and England up against each other it is embarrassing. There is no contest between them on an individual or team basis.”Rodney Hogg
“I just know Shane [Warne] will be someone who will really hone in on Andrew Flintoff and I’m sure there’s a weakness there with Flintoff.” .Dean Jones
“I’m just a little worried that [Andrew Flintoff] might be rushing back too quickly after the surgery. It took Glenn McGrath six months and some intensive rehabilitation to get back to the level he is at now.”John Buchanan
“The one-day series give us the opportunity to pit our skills against theirs, and then we would hope that in playing pretty well, we would assert ourselves and provide some sort of statement about the rest of the tour.” Terry Alderman
“If Australia get away to a good start then England have got no chance. They have got to be competitive in that first Test at Lord’s or else it’s goodnight.” Simon Katich
“We’ve spoken about the fact that the schedule suits us, but we also realise that the ECB have got their reasons for scheduling things a certain way. It doesn’t stuff us around too much with travelling.” Graham Gooch
“It’s a bit of an advantage to Australia to play at the back end of the season. Shane Warne will be happy with that. If you had to choose a schedule, it doesn’t get much better for them, and it’s fair to say Australia don’t need any outside help.”John Buchanan on Michael Clarke”He has been picked as a No. 6 batsman and that remains the key element of his game, but the bowling will be good for his overall game … It’s more important in the one-day game now that Lehmann is not playing, but he may be able to play more of a role for us in Test matches.”

The Australian players

Ricky Ponting
“I’m not looking at it as being the first to lose them. I’m looking at being another Australian captain to retain the Ashes.”Matthew Hayden
“I don’t really care much for all this ‘are they closer?’ I really believe that it’s all about us – if we are executing our skills I don’t believe there’s a side that can get close to us.”Glenn McGrath“If Harmison or Freddie [Flintoff] have a bad series, then they’re really going to struggle, whereas the Australian team, on any given day, any one of the players can perform well.”Brett Lee
“I am feeling match fit and think I’m also approaching the best part of my career. Hopefully, good things come to those who wait.” Damien Martyn on England’s improvement between Ashes series
“The same thing happened in ’93 and 2001. Their results have got better, but every time we go to England they get better – it’s the same scenario.”Michael Clarke
“England are playing fantastic cricket at the moment, they have a great team and I know all the Aussies are looking forward to getting over there. We’ll be doing everything in our power to get over there and win every game if possible.”Simon Katich“The ICC tables have us on top at the moment, but we are certainly not taking anything for granted. Our immediate focus is on defending the Ashes before turning our attention in October to the Super Series.”

The right

Matthew Hoggard
“They’re getting on a little bit – we’ve got back-to-back Test matches so it’ll be interesting to see if they can put in the consistent performances for 25 days. It’ll be interesting to see if they have the firepower to bowl us out twice.”Shane Warne on Andrew Strauss after Hampshire played Middlesex
“I wanted to have a look at him and see if he had a game-plan against me. That was the first time I’ve ever bowled against him and I liked what I saw. He walked across to let balls go, and when he tried to reverse-sweep I thought it was a sign that he wasn’t sure what to do.” Brett Lee
“I’ve been a person that’s bowled a few short balls in my time and I’ve been a person whose copped a few. I know England have tried to bounce our tail to put us on the backfoot and get us out as cheaply as possible.” John Buchanan
“[England] play with a deal of confidence in themselves and a deal of expectation that they will play well and go on to win the series. They look like they can play different styles of game. They look like they can be attacking if they want to be, and they can play a defensive game if they need to.”

Pakistan will host their first Asia Cup one-day tournament in March 2006, according to Shaharyar Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board.The decision was made at a meeting of the Asian Cricket Council in Dubai. Shaharyar told the Reuters news agency that Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India have all confirmed that they will participate, while qualifiers will also feature.Pakistan has not hosted any of the previous editions of the tournament, which was first held in 1984. The last Asia Cup, the eighth of its kind, was held in Sri Lanka last year and six teams, including Hong Kong and UAE, took part. Sri Lanka dominated the tournament and overcame India in the final in Colombo.

Lancashire 335 and 24 for 0 beat Sussex 195 and 163 (Cork 5-58) by 10 wickets
Scorecard

This mouthwatering game between last year’s champions and this year’s favourites ended in a booming win for the new pretenders. In 2003, Lancashire did not manage a single three-day win; but for Wednesday afternoon’s deluge, they might have won here inside two. On this evidence, nothing but the weather can hold them back: after Stuart Law’s breathtaking innings yesterday, their seamers took centre stage today – and barely fluffed a line.Sussex began the day – another bathed in sumptuous spring sunshine – 89 behind, but with all ten second-innings wickets intact. The weather was so glorious that optimism among the home crowd took fanciful flight. Murmurs were heard about a last-day declaration. Those whispers, emanating from the members’ enclosure, were slightly louder than over the first two days, partly because of Sussex’s improved performance on Thursday, and partly because the members were getting to grips with the new ID-card scheme. For the first time, passport-sized photos are required to avoid the cards being shared around to gain free entry. Such is the price of Sussex’s success.Those wearers of rose-tinted spectacles were still hoping for a day echoing with the sound of rattling boundary boards when Sussex suffered their first setback. Ian Ward and Richard Montgomerie had taken the score to 64, and the deficit to 76, when Peter Martin surprised Ward with bounce and movement, and Warren Hegg took a straightforward catch.Still, Montgomerie and Murray Goodwin moved the score along to 90 for 1, and the optimists’ position looked just about tenable. The Lancashire seamers, though, were hitting their stride, hitting the deck and now hitting the stumps. Sajid Mahmood bowled three successive awayswingers then, ten minutes after midday, followed them up with one that came in. Montgomerie shouldered arms and saw his off stump disappear. It spoke volumes about Mahmood’s maturity: Martin Bicknell memorably did the same to South Africa’s Jacques Rudolph at The Oval last summer.Montgomerie, who carried his bat on Wednesday, had hung around for 115 balls for his 27, but his departure punctured the Sussex innings. Goodwin was trapped lbw by Dominic Cork, who cast off yesterday’s golden duck to spearhead the Lancashire attack. Chris Adams later said he thought “Cork had really added something to this Lancashire side.” Not that Adams had any chance to look closely at him today: he too got a first-baller, spooning a leading edge from Mahmood to backward point.With Robin Martin-Jenkins – another leg-before victim for Cork – lasting just three deliveries, Sussex, now 96 for 5, had lost four wickets for six runs in ten balls. Against other attacks, there might have been a way back, but Lancashire were magnificent: “For Gary Keedy [who took ten Sussex wickets last September] not to take part in the game was testament to how their seamers bowled,” conceded Adams. Cork ripped through the tail to grab his first Lancashire five-for. In just 88 minutes either side of lunch, the Sussex ship had sunk from 90 for 1 to 163 all out.That may have been fast, but it was nothing to what followed. In order to remedy their parlous over rate on the second day, Sussex zipped through the overs like demented greyhounds. In little more than 15 minutes, they bowled almost nine overs – the time Lancashire needed to make 24 and win by ten wickets – but at least Sussex avoided the hefty two-point penalty levied on Lancashire. “I’ll take a couple of points lost,” reflected Warren Hegg afterwards, “to win a match against a team that’s going to be there or thereabouts at the end of the season.” Will they?Hugh Chevallier is deputy editor of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.

Martin Love will join Warwickshire next season on a one-year contract. Love, the 32-year-old Australian top-order batsman, averages 50.30 in first-class cricket and has Test match experience, having played five games between 2002 and 2003. He will be available for the entire season.Love already has county experience, at Durham and Northamptonshire where he scored more than 4000 runs, including ten centuries in all forms of cricket. He made his debut for Queensland, aged 18, in the 1992-93 Sheffield Shield final and he was voted State Player of the Year in 2003.”It was important that we signed a top quality batsman to replace Nick Knight,” said Mark Greatbatch, Warwickshire’s director of coaching, “and we are delighted that Martin will be joining us next season. He is a player with a proven pedigree, a winning attitude and an excellent work ethic.”

Andrew Strauss, the Middlesex captain and opener, has been called up to the England Test squad in the Caribbean as cover for Mark Butcher, who injured his ankle in the first match of the tour, and Graham Thorpe, who has suffered a recurrence of his niggling back injury.It was a belated birthday present for Strauss, who turned 27 on Tuesday. He had been due to arrive with the England one-day team in April – he made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka at Dambulla last November – but he will now join up with the Test squad on Sunday.”I’ve been in training and getting myself ready for the domestic season with Middlesex and also for the one-day series,” he told the BBC. “I’ve never been to the Caribbean before and I’m very much looking forward to getting out there and teaming up with the rest of the squad.”

Henry Olonga has been granted a five-year visa to remain in Britain. Olonga hit the headlines earlier this year when he and team-mate Andy Flower staged a protest against the Zimbabwe government during their first World Cup game. The players claimed they were mourning the “death of democracy” in Zimbabwe.Both players decided to retire from international cricket after the World Cup. Olonga, who said he was threatened by the ZImbabwean police, quit the country and moved to England, while Flower now divides his time between playingcounty cricket for Essex in England and in domestic cricket for South Australia.Olonga, who is a talented singer and is planning a musical career, is due to undergo knee surgery later this month and believes he may not play first-class cricket again. “I’ve torn about a square centimetre of cartilage which is floating around in my knee,” he told the BBC Sport website. “It’s got to be taken out and then they’ve got to find the source. The specialist reckons it’s from the back of my knee but he can’t say how bad the damage is until he goes in.”My knee is the latest in a whole string of injuries that have spanned mycareer. I’m 27 and I’m starting to feel 40.”Olonga worked as an analyst for Channel 4 in England last summer, and also joined the BBC’s Test Match Special radio commentary team during Zimbabwe’s tour. And he also played for Lashings, a Kent-based club side, which now employs him as a public-relations officer.Olonga and Flower were awarded life membership of MCC recebtly inrecognition of their stand against the regime of Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe.Olonga concluded: “I’m not sure if and when I’ll return to Zimbabwe. If thecurrent regime stays in power, then I’ve got no chance. If things were to change, it may well be that I won’t stay here all that time – but I will plan my life as if I’m going to be here for those five years.”I’m not going to make any predictions but where I end up staying andworking will be determined by the next moves I make in my career, whether it becricket or music. If it’s cricket, I may well go back. But if music takes a central role in my life, it’s unlikely I’ll go back to Zim.”

ScorecardThe West Indian tourists enjoyed a gentle warm-up match in preparation for the five-match ODI series, beating a rather disappointing Zimbabwe A side at Kwekwe Sports Club in the Midlands by seven wickets.The medium-pace of Wavell Hinds caused most of the damage after Zimbabwe decided to bat. Hinds took three quick wickets and played the major role in reducing Zimbabwe A to 96 for 5. Then came a face-saving stand of 90 between Barney Rogers and Alester Maregwede, the only two players who will have done much to enhance their reputations in the eyes of the national selectors. Chris Gayle bowled his offbreaks with skill at the death, and Zimbabwe A’s 239 for 8 was respectable but hardly challenging.Gayle fell to the persistent Gary Brent for a single in the second over of the innings, but this was to be the extent of Zimbabwe A’s success. Hinds and Shivnarine Chanderpaul both passed 60 before retiring to give Marlon Samuels and Ramnaresh Sarwan some batting practice, and they took the tourists home with almost 13 overs in hand. The runs always came at a good rate, but the crowd was disappointed not to see Brian Lara in action with the bat. Perhaps the man who might have benefited most from an innings was Ricky Powell, added to the party for the one-day series which starts at Bulawayo on Saturday.

WESTERN Australian fast-bowling legend Jo Angel will make his final appearance at the WACA Ground in this weekend’s Pura Cup match against NSW.With the Retravision Warriors unlikely to host the Pura Cup final WA will not play another first-class match at the WACA Ground this season.The entire Warriors squad will be at the WACA Ground to farewell Angel at 11.00am on Thursday morning and the Media are invited to Angel’s final Media conference.Angel is WA’s leading wicket-taker in first-class cricket. In 120 first-class matches for WA Angel has taken 480 wickets at an average of 25.14. In 104 Sheffield Shield/Pura Cup games he has taken 414 wickets at an average of 24.90.He has taken five wickets in an innings on 16 occasions and has once taken 10 wickets in a match.Angel is the second highest wicket-taker in Sheffield Shield/Pura Cup history. Only legendary leg-spinner Clarrie Grimmet has taken more with 513 wickets, a record unlikely to ever be beaten.Angel and Grimmet are the only bowlers to take more than 400 wickets in the Sheffield Shield/Pura Cup.The WACA Ground has been a happy hunting ground for Angel. In 53 Sheffield Shield/Pura Cup matches here Angel has taken 248 wickets at an average of 22.94 with 10 five-wicket hauls.He recorded career-best figures of 6-35 against Queensland at the WACA Ground last season.Angel turns 36 in April and is in his 13th season with WA. The right-arm quick said his retirement has come about from wear and tear on his body.”It’s a case of the mind being willing and the body not being able to cope with the demands of professional cricket anymore,” he said.The WACA has dedicated the final home Pura Cup match of the season to Angel and will hold a lunch in his honour on Friday at the WACA ground. Many past WA greats are expected to attend.

A recurrence of a rib injury has forced Craig White to play as a specialist batsman for the rest of the season, further ruining any hopes of making an England comeback.White was examined by the Yorkshire physio on Tuesday and they now plan to re-assess his condition at the end of the summer. He told the BBC, “I’ll play as a batsman and if I get back bowling, fine, but if not, I’m going to have to sit down and really think about where I’m heading."He added: “I’m 33 and I think I’ve got a lot of cricket left in me yet – it’s just that when you keep getting injured it does get you down, and there’s only so much you can take. I’ll just re-assess at the end of the summer – see where I am.”White, who underwent surgery on his ribs at the start of the season, left the field during Yorkshire’s National League match against Surrey on Sunday. “It has been sore since I started bowling against Somerset at Taunton, but I knew and I was just hoping it would gradually get better,” he told the Yorkshire Post. “I tried to bowl a bouncer at Mark Butcher but as soon as I had released the ball I had excruciating pain in the same area. It was as if someone had stabbed me with a knife.”