Wallis Mathias (4 February 1935 – 1 September 1994) was a Pakistani

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er who played in 21 Test matches from 1955 to 1962. A

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, he was the first non-Muslim cricketer to play for

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. He belonged to Karachi's Goan community. The son of a porter at the Karachi Gymkhana Club, Mathias was a stylish right-handed middle-order batsman. He made three half centuries in his Test career, all of them against

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

. In the Second Test against West Indies in Dacca in 1958–59, he top-scored in each innings with 64 and 45, as Pakistan won a low-scoring match by 41 runs. He was also a gifted slip fielder with exceptional reflexes, whose "great skill was to make hard chances look simple". According to Imtiaz Ahmed, the Test wicket-keeper at the time, he was Pakistan's first good slip fielder, who "changed the atmosphere in the slip cordon", which previously had been the domain of players "who did not want to run". He was a prolific run scorer in Pakistani domestic cricket. After he returned from the tour of England in 1962, in the next four years he made 1357 runs in 13 matches at an average of 113.08, including his career-best score of 278 not out for Karachi Blues against Railways Greens in 1965–66. Four years later he joined the newly formed National Bank cricket team and became their first ever captain, playing for them until 1976-77 and later coaching the side. In 146 first-class matches he made 7,520 runs, average 44.49, including 16 centuries. He held 130 catches, 22 in Tests. Mathias died of a brain haemorrhage in 1994, aged 59.

Education

He was educated at the St. Patrick's High School, Karachi.

References

External links

* 1935 births 1994 deaths Pakistan Test cricketers Sindh cricketers National Bank of Pakistan cricketers Pakistani Roman Catholics Pakistani cricketers Karachi cricketers Karachi A cricketers Karachi Blues cricketers Karachi Whites cricketers South Zone (Pakistan) cricketers Pakistani people of Goan descent St. Patrick's High School, Karachi alumni Cricketers from Karachi {{Pakistan-cricket-bio-1930s-stub