Wasim Hasan Raja

 Wasim Hasan Raja Biography

Source(google.com.pk)
Full name Wasim Hasan Raja

Born July 3, 1952, Multan, Punjab

Died August 23, 2006, Marlow, Buckinghamshire (aged 54 years 51 days)

Major teams Pakistan, Combined Universities, Durham, Lahore, National Bank of Pakistan, Pakistan International Airlines, Punjab, Punjab University, Sargodha

Batting style Left-hand bat

Bowling style Legbreak googly

Other Referee

Relation Father - Saleem Akhtar, Brother - Zaeem Raja, Brother - Rameez Raja

 Wasim Hasan Raja
Batting and fielding averages
Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave BF SR 100 50 6s Ct St
Tests 57 92 14 2821 125 36.16 4 18 27 20 0
ODIs 54 45 10 782 60 22.34 1168 66.95 0 2 24 0
First-class 250 379 54 11434 165 35.18 17 156 0
List A 89 75 15 1412 60 23.53 0 4 37 0
Bowling averages
Mat Inns Balls Runs Wkts BBI BBM Ave Econ SR 4w 5w 10
Tests 57 69 4082 1826 51 4/50 6/86 35.80 2.68 80.0 2 0 0
ODIs 54 29 1036 687 21 4/25 4/25 32.71 3.97 49.3 1 0 0
First-class 250 16211 558 8/65 29.05 31 7
List A 89 2206+ 1529 60 6/39 6/39 25.48 4.04* 39.3* 2 1 0
Career statistics
Test debut New Zealand v Pakistan at Wellington, Feb 2-5, 1973 scorecard
Last Test New Zealand v Pakistan at Auckland, Jan 25-28, 1985 scorecard
Test statistics

ODI debut New Zealand v Pakistan at Christchurch, Feb 11, 1973 scorecard
Last ODI India v Pakistan at Melbourne, Mar 10, 1985 scorecard
ODI statistics

First-class span 1967-1988
List A span 1972-1987
ICC match referee statistics
Test debut West Indies v New Zealand at Bridgetown, Jun 21-24, 2002 scorecard
Last Test Zimbabwe v Bangladesh at Bulawayo, Feb 26-Mar 1, 2004 scorecard
Test matches 15
Test statistics

ODI debut West Indies v New Zealand at Kingston, Jun 5, 2002 scorecard
Last ODI Zimbabwe v Bangladesh at Harare, Mar 14, 2004 scorecard
ODI matches 34
ODI statistics

Profile
Master of style and exuberance

Wasim Raja was a glorious lefthanded strokemaker, who revelled in adversity, a useful legspinner, who also opened the bowling for Pakistan on occasions, and an outstanding, lithe cover fieldsman. He represented Pakistan in more than 100 international matches, coached the national side for a short while and had a spell as an ICC match referee, being in charge of the last Ashes series in Australia. He will always be remembered for the style and spirit in which he played the game, yet for such a mild-mannered and charming man he had his fair share of clashes with the Pakistan board. From a privileged background, he did not enjoy the hierarchy within the side, once refusing to hang out a senior player's socks to dry, but more importantly he always felt frustrated that he seemed to be picked on a match-by-match basis while a clique of senior players were omnipresent in the team. But for this, he might have captained Pakistan ahead of the more rumbustious Javed Miandad or diffident Zaheer Abbas. After all, as a batsman he was a prodigy at 18 and led the under-19 side. Quite often then he did not bother to wear pads when practising with his contemporary Imran Khan, who admitted that Wasim "was in a different class altogether and was already batting with a maturity beyond his years". He was the eldest of three boys, all of whom played first-class cricket. Ramiz followed him into the Test team and later captained Pakistan, while Zaeem played for National Bank. His father Raja Saleem Akhtar also played firstclass cricket, captaining Sargodha. Wasim made his first-class debut at 15, for Lahore, while still at school at Government College, went on to Punjab University, where he excelled at cricket and academically, getting a first in his Masters degree in politics, and came into the Test side in 1972-73, when called up as a replacement for the tour of New Zealand. He began to establish himself in 1974 in England, where he topped the tour averages. The "exuberant" Wasim played two innings at Lord's that Wisden described as "masterly", countering Derek Underwood on a drying wicket with selective attack. At home that winter he scored his maiden Test hundred against West Indies at Karachi. His innings was such a fine one that, instead of the usual handful of well-wishers that used to run on to the field to congratulate a batsman on reaching three figures, there was a full-scale invasion. In all he played 11 Tests against West Indies, against attacks including Andy Roberts, Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner and Colin Croft, making 919 runs at 57.43, an average that only Greg Chappell exceeded during that era. He also had an excellent record against India, hitting two 90s on the 1978-79 tour when many of the other front-line batsmen crumpled under the pressure and ending the series with 450 runs at 56.25. He made his highest Test score against them - 125 not out at Jullundur - and had his best bowling figures, 4 for 50, with his under-utilised legspin in the same match. For a number of years he played Minor Counties cricket for Durham, where he met his future wife, Anne, also a useful cricketer. He studied for his teaching degree at the University. While there, a serious car accident nearly ended his life, never mind his playing days, but he eventually returned to the game, helping Durham win the UAU Championship in 1990 with a match-winning 50 in the final. He went on to teach geography and PE at Caterham School for 15 years. Wasim, who collapsed and died while playing cricket for Surrey over-50s at High Wycombe, is survived by his wife Anne, and his two sons, Ali and Ahmed.
The Pakistani cricketer Wasim Raja, who has died aged 54 of a heart attack, was an ebullient all-rounder who seldom bothered with the expected. Though he was a left-handed middle-order batsman, he bowled right-handed - leg-breaks and googlies - and was not just much-loved, but something of an international cult figure.
A tall, dashing-looking man with a magnificent moustache and magnetically nonchalant air, he exuded daring. "Wasim Hasan Raja truly was a raja," the Australian writer Gideon Haigh rejoiced. "You can sense the name suspended as an honorific in the collective mindspace of Pakistani fans. He shares it with his famous younger brother, yet when people refer to Raja, he's the one they mean." (That younger brother, Rameez, who played the same number of Tests, 57, has been commentating for radio and television on this summer's matches between England and Pakistan.)

If few cricketers have appeared to pay so little heed to game situations or the essential principles of common sense, even fewer left such an indelible physical impression. "Descending the pavilion steps as if he were going to fly a kite, he would casually stroll up to the wicket as if he were enjoying himself on holiday," recalled the Karachi-based journalist Saad Shafqat. Even Englishmen recall the tossing of that rich black mane and the state of his shirt: raised collar, countless undone buttons, sleeves neatly rolled up that bit further than anyone else's.

Born in Multan, in Punjab, Wasim was the eldest of three cricketing sons. Rameez became captain of Pakistan and chief executive of the country's cricket board, and another brother, Zaeem, also played first-class cricket, as did their father, Raja Saleem Akhtar, a high-ranking civil servant.

Bright and cultured, Wasim graduated with a master's in political science from Government College, Lahore. Some felt he would have made a fair Test captain - indeed, he was vice-captain on the dispiriting 1978 tour to England - but he did not relish the politics of sport, much preferring to entertain.

He aggregated 3,600 runs and 72 wickets in 111 five- and one-day internationals between 1973 and 1985, his Test appearances yielding 2,821 runs at 36.16, with four centuries. His leg-breaks and googlies occasionally befuddled the best, including Clive Lloyd, Roy Fredericks, Glenn Turner and Vivian Richards, and in an era swamped by pace and brutality, the art of wrist-spinning brought him a very respectable haul of 51 victims at 35 apiece. But it was the understated swagger and relentless adventurousness that made him both folk-hero and inspiration to the next generation of Pakistan cricketers.

In the mid-1970s, as the Pakistan team began to assert itself in the international arena with the aid of precociously gifted, decidedly un-meek characters such as Mushtaq Mohammad, Javed Miandad and Imran Khan, Raja was the Shahid Afridi of his day: irrepressible, unpredictable, unpigeonholeable, and apt to reserve his best for the fiercest opponents, in Wasim's case the West Indies. His zenith came amid narrow defeat in the Caribbean in early 1977, when he top-scored in each innings in both the first and second Tests, including 117 and 71 to push the West Indies to within one wicket of their first defeat in Barbados since 1935.

His last-wicket stand of 133 in 110 minutes with wicketkeeper Wasim Bari - after the fearsome missiles of Andy Roberts and Colin Croft had sent the tourists spiralling to 158 for nine - stood tall as a national record for more than 20 years. Finishing the rubber with 517 runs at 57.43, he led the averages ahead of the more heralded likes of Majid Khan and Zaheer Abbas. Not until 1995, when Australia beat them, would the West Indies come so close to losing a series at home.

That tour encapsulated the man. Batting at number six, sometimes as low as number seven, it was as if his temperament required a crisis before it would flower. His average in 11 Tests against the most dominating team the game has ever known was 57.43 - superior to such renowned pace-tamers as Sunil Gavaskar, Graham Gooch, Allan Border, Mohinder Amarnath and Allan Lamb. That Raja never once emitted even the vaguest sign of giving a fig for figures made it all the more extraordinary.

Upon retiring from international cricket, he gained a postgraduate certificate at Durham University to become a teacher of geography and physical education. He also coached the Pakistan Under-19 team and served as an International Cricket Council match referee. His heart attack occurred while he was playing for Surrey Over-50s at Marlow, in Buckinghamshire, and he is survived by his wife, Anne, and sons, Ali and Ahmed, both cricketers.

 Wasim Hasan Raja 

 Wasim Hasan Raja 

 Wasim Hasan Raja 

 Wasim Hasan Raja 

 Wasim Hasan Raja 

 Wasim Hasan Raja 

 Wasim Hasan Raja 

 Wasim Hasan Raja 

 Wasim Hasan Raja