Adil Najam
Wasim Raja — one of the most elegant batsmen ever; a swashbuckling heartthrob who seemed to be from a different era all-together; the thinking man’s cricketers; the last of the ‘gentleman players’; someone who was always a job to watch playing and an even bigger joy tyo spend and eveniong talking cricket to — just died.The news is too fresh, the details too uncertain, and my emotions too strong, for me to write a proper post. But here is the news from CricInfo.
Wasim Raja, the former Pakistan batsman who went on to become an ICC match referee, has died while playing for Surrey Over 50s at Marlow in Buckinghamshire. He was 54. “Wasim had a big heart attack on the field,” said a Surrey spokesman. “He felt dizzy, and mentioned this to the slips, saying that he felt he had to go off. He was carried off but then collapsed on the boundary.”
Wasim, the brother of Rameez Raja, was a bearded left-hand middle-order batsman, whereas Rameez was a clean-shaven right-hand opener. Wasim could bowl, too; brisk, flat top-spinners rather than legbreaks, pioneering the style followed by Anil Kumble and Shahid Afridi…. He might have made a good Pakistan captain in a rather old-fashioned amateur swashbuckling fashion, but coming from the country’s elite, studying in Durham and marrying an Englishwoman, he tended to be above the political battle…. He played 57 Tests between 1973 and 1985, scoring 2821 runs at 36.16 with four hundreds, the best of which was 125. He also took 51 wickets at 35.80 with a best of 4 for 50.
Read an earlier tribute to his cricket, here.
Also, Adil, you keep misspelling Cricinfo (notice the lack of ‘k’) :D
Adil: Thanks for picking that up. Changed.
Frankly I never saw him play or anything but from what I’ve read recently, it seems like he was an excellent cricketer and a great ambassador for our country. May his sould rest in peace.
Wasim Raja was my boyhood hero. The news of his death was a shock and yet at the same time it took me back to my childhood and reminded me of the times I would stay up in the middle of the night, with a transistor radio under my pillow, waiting for Raja to come in to bat. The West Indies tour of 1977 was especially memorable. I still remember his last wicket stand of 130 odd with Wasim Bari that saved the first test. And the last time I saw him play live in the National Stadium against the West Indies when, uncharacteristically, he batted on and on and scored an unbeaten 70 odd to save the test for Pakistan against the likes of Joel Garner and Sylvester Clarke. Raja, and that’s how all of Pakistan knew him, was often frustrating to watch because he so often seemed to throw his wicket away but he did it in a manner that would make you tune in the next time he came in to bat. His life seems to have mirrored his batting – elegant, exciting, courageous, but unfortunately too short. He is gone but will not be forgotten.
Innalillahe wa inna ilaihe rajiun.
Sad.
News following the sad demise of Wasim Raja (may his soul rest in peace):
http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/pakistan/content/s tory/257622.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/other_inte rnational/pakistan/5279468.stm