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.
As crickter when i listion that wesim raja died ,i felt that my family member died ,even i neaver meet with him.I saw him as a veay brave player and very knowlegeable player ,he knew cricket in depth .He will always live in my heart.