Wasim Bari ( ur, ; born 23 March 1948) is a former Pakistani international

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who played in 81 Test matches and 51

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

s from 1967 to 1984. Bari was a wicket-keeper and right-handed batsman. At the end of his 17-year career he was the most capped player in Pakistani Test history. His talent was first recognised in 1967 with members of the England under 25 team stating that he was the best keeper to come out of the South Asia. It was in England where he made his Test match debut, with

Colin Milburn Colin Milburn (nicknamed Ollie; 23 October 1941 – 28 February 1990) was an English cricketer, who played in nine Test matches for England, before an accident led to the loss of much of his sight and prompted his retirement. Cricker writer Coli ...

being his first dismissal. With the bat he managed 15.88 per innings in his career, including an innings of 60 not out at number 11, in which he helped score a last wicket partnership of 133 with

Wasim Raja Wasim Hasan Raja ( Punjabi, ur, ) (3 July 1952 – 23 August 2006) was a British Pakistani schoolteacher, match referee, cricket coach and cricketer who played in 57 Test matches and 54 One Day Internationals for the Pakistani national cric ...

. According to

Tony Greig Anthony William Greig (6 October 194629 December 2012) was a South African-born Test cricket captain turned commentator. Greig qualified to play for the England cricket team by virtue of his Scottish parentage. He was a tall () all-rounder w ...

, commentator and former England captain, most people believe

Alan Knott Alan Philip Eric Knott (born 9 April 1946) is a former cricketer who represented England at international level in both Tests and One-Day Internationals (ODI). Knott is widely regarded as one of the most eccentric characters in cricket and as ...

was the best wicket-keeper to have played the game in that era but Knott himself believed Bari was better than him.

Imran Khan Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi ( ur}; born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician and former Cricket captain who served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan from August 2018 to until April 2022, when he was ousted through a no-confidenc ...

, who persuaded Wasim Bari from retiring earlier, believed he was as good as Knott. In 1971 at

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

, he equalled the then world record of 8 catches in a Test match. He was in the record books again in 1976/77 by stumping 4 batsmen in a Test, against the

Australians Australians, colloquially known as Aussies, are the citizens, nationals and individuals associated with the country of Australia. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or ethno-cultural. For most Australians, several (or all) ...

. In 1979 against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

he caught 7 of the first 8 batsmen, creating a world record for most dismissals in a Test innings. He finished his career with 228 Test victims, the most by a Pakistani and the most by a South Asian keeper at the time. Among

South Asians South Asian ethnic groups are an ethnolinguistic grouping of the diverse populations of South Asia, including the nations of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka. While Afghanistan is variously considered to b ...

, only

M S Dhoni Mahendra Singh Dhoni (; born 7 July 1981) is an Indian former international cricketer who was captain of the Indian national cricket team in limited-overs formats from 2007 to 2017 and in Test cricket from 2008 to 2014. He is also the curren ...

has more catches and stumpings in Test cricket. Wasim Bari captained Pakistan in 6

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

matches and five

one-day internationals A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

, all of them against England home and away, at a time when Pakistan was deprived of some its best and most recognisable players, such as

Zaheer Abbas Syed Zaheer Abbas Kirmani PP, (in Punjabi and Urdu: سید ظہیر عباس کرمانی; born 24 July 1947), popularly known as Zaheer Abbas, is a former Pakistani cricketer. He is among few professional cricketers who used to wear spectacles ...

, Majid Khan and

Mushtaq Mohammed Mushtaq Mohammad PP (Urdu: مشتاق محمد‎; born 22 November 1943) is a Pakistani cricket coach and former cricketer who played in 57 Tests and 10 ODIs from 1959 to 1979. A right-handed batsman and a leg-spinner, he is one of the mos ...

, by Kerry Packer's

World Series Cricket World Series Cricket (WSC) was a commercial professional cricket competition staged between 1977 and 1979 which was organised by Kerry Packer and his Australian television network, Nine Network. WSC ran in commercial competition to establish ...

. He was caught up in the middle of a controversy during the tour to England regarding the growing practice of short-pitched bowling at

tailend In cricket, the batting order is the sequence in which batters play through their team's innings, there always being two batters taking part at any one time. All eleven players in a team are required to bat if the innings is completed (i.e., if ...

batsman after

Iqbal Qasim Mohammad Iqbal Qasim ( ur, محمد اقبال قاسم; born 6 August 1953) is a former Pakistani cricketer who played in 50 Test matches and 15 One Day Internationals between 1976 and 1988. Qasim ended his career with 171 wickets in his 50 ...

was forced to retire hurt after being hit by

Bob Willis Robert George Dylan Willis (born Robert George Willis; 30 May 1949 – 4 December 2019) was an English cricketer, who represented England between 1971 and 1984. A right-handed fast bowler, Willis is regarded by many as one of the greatest fa ...

in the first Test at

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

Education

He was educated at the Cantonment Public School, Karachi.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bari, Wasim 1948 births Living people Karachi cricketers Pakistan International Airlines cricketers Pakistan One Day International cricketers Pakistan Test cricketers Pakistan Test cricket captains Pakistani cricket captains Sindh cricketers St. Patrick's College (Karachi) alumni Cricketers at the 1975 Cricket World Cup Cricketers at the 1979 Cricket World Cup Cricketers at the 1983 Cricket World Cup Pakistani cricketers Cricketers from Karachi Karachi Blues cricketers Pakistan International Airlines A cricketers South Zone (Pakistan) cricketers St. Patrick's High School, Karachi alumni Wicket-keepers