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

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 81

Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Indoor cricket, Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (associa ...

and 51

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

s from 1967 to 1984. Bari was a wicket-keeper and right-handed batsman. He captained Pakistan in Test matches and one-day internationals. At the end of his 17-year career, he was the most-capped player in Pakistani Test history. In June 2009, Bari was named as the interim chief selector of the

Pakistan national cricket team The Pakistan men's national cricket team represents Pakistan in international cricket. It is controlled by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), the governing body for cricket in Pakistan, which is a Full Member of the International Cricket Counc ...

Career

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 South Asia. It was in England where he made his Test match debut, with

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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, ) (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 cricket team ...

. According to

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, 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 o ...

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 (born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician, philanthropist, and former cricketer who served as the 19th prime minister of Pakistan from August 2018 until April 2022. He was the founder of the political party Pak ...

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

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, 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 citizenship, citizens, nationality, nationals and individuals associated with the country of Australia. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or ethno-cultural. For most Aust ...

. In 1979 against

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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 Ethnic groups in South Asia are ethnolinguistic groupings within the diverse populations of South Asia, including the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Afghanistan is variously considered to be a p ...

, only

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has more catches and stumpings in Test cricket. Wasim Bari captained Pakistan in 6 Test matches and five one-day internationals, all of them against England home and away, at a time when Pakistan was deprived of some of 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 Pakistani former cricketer. He is among the few professional cricketers who used to wear spect ...

, Majid Khan and Mushtaq Mohammed, by

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

tailender 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 ...

batsmen after

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was forced to retire hurt after being hit by

Bob Willis Robert George Dylan Willis (born 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 fast bowlers of all tim ...

in the first Test at

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

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 Pakistan cricket team selectors