Wazir was born in Junagadh on 22nd December 1929. He came from a well off family, his father was the manager of a salt factory and they also owned a petrol station and a motel called Green Rest House. The family migrated to Pakistan in 1947 and experienced great initial hardships. His father soon passed away and the two elder brothers, Wazir and Raees, had to take up jobs to keep the family afloat.

Wazir and Raees had both played competitive school and club cricket in Junagadh. In Karachi they joined the Pak Mughal Club and soon began to make an impression.

Wazir made his first-class debut against the visiting Ceylonese (Sri Lankan) team in 1950, playing for a Karachi/Sindh side. His second first-class match also marked his debut for the Pakistan national team, when he represented them against the visiting MCC side in an unofficial Test at Lahore in 1951. His next first-class match was also against the same opponents and playing for a combined Karachi/Bahawalpur team he scored his first fifty in first-class cricket.

These performances led to Wazir’s selection for the Pakistan team on its inaugural tour of India in 1952-53. A maiden first-class century against the West Zone earned him a team berth in the 3rd Test where he did little of note. He confessed many years later that unused to playing in front of large crowds, the pressure of the big match occasion got to him. He found it difficult to read Mankad’s deliveries until they had already pitched, leaving him with very little reaction time.

Wazir was in the Bahawalpur side that won the inaugural Quaid-e-Azam trophy in 1953-54 and was chosen for Pakistan’s 1954 tour of England. He played in the last two Tests of the series and made his mark in the final Test at the Oval.

In a low scoring match Pakistan were bowled out for only 133 in the first innings to which England replied with just 130, as Fazal picked up 6 wickets for 53. In their second innings Pakistan were tottering on 73 for 6, when Wazir came to the crease. They soon lost two more wickets to be precariously perched on 82 for 8, as Wazir was joined by Zulfiqar, a tail-ender who could be quite handy with the bat.

Over the next 90 minutes this pair faced the best England could hurl at them. Those were the days of uncovered pitches and the rain affected wicket behaved erratically, displaying uneven bounce. A ruse from Wazir helped them. He was hit on the toe by an in-swinging yorker from Statham. Wazir pretended that it was more painful than it really was. A physiotherapist was called to the ground and play was held up for a few minutes while he attended to the batsman. When the game resumed the English wicket keeper Godfrey Evans shouted to Statham that Wazir’s toe was badly injured and he won’t be able to move his feet well, so continue to pitch the ball up to him. This is exactly what Wazir wanted because the shorter deliveries were more difficult to face on account of the irregular behavior of the playing surface. After each delivery he would deliberately hop around and groan as if in pain. The bowlers continued to bowl a full length and Wazir made the most of it.

Zulfiqar played strokes with abandon while Wazir relied on singles. An invaluable partnership of 58 took the score to 140, before Zulfiqar fell for 34. When the last man Mahmood Hussain joined him, Wazir went on the attack, scoring 18 of the last 24 runs, including four boundaries. When Pakistan’s innings closed on 164, Wazir was unbeaten with 42 runs scored in nearly three hours of resolute batting. This effort would eventually prove to be a match winning contribution.

England could only muster 143 in reply, leaving Pakistan worthy winners by 24 runs. Fazal took 6 more wickets for a match tally of 12 and has been acclaimed as the hero of this famous Pakistani win. However, the truth is that Wazir was an equal architect of this triumph, for without his obdurate resilience Pakistan would have dismissed for a paltry score that England would have comfortably overtaken.

In the 1954-55 Quaid-e-Azam trophy Wazir reached some new landmarks. He became the first batsman to score a century for Karachi in the history of this tournament, when he made 122 not out against the Railways, and in the championship final, where Karachi defeated the Combined Services, Wazir, Raees and Hanif each scored a century in Karachi’s first innings. This marked the first occasion when three brothers all made centuries in the same innings of a first-class match.

In 1956 Australia visited Pakistan for a single Test series. In another low scoring match at the National Stadium, Karachi, Australia were bundled out for merely 80 runs in their first innings. Pakistan performed no better and lost half their side for 70. At this stage Kardar and Wazir came together in an innings saving stand of 104 runs for the 6th wicket. Kardar adopted an attacking role, while Wazir defended dourly. In an agonisingly slow paced match, the Wazir-Kardar partnership provided the most refreshing period of the game. Wazir scored 67 runs and his was the eighth wicket to fall with the score at 189. Pakistan were eventually all out for 199, gaining a match winning lead of 119. Australia managed just 187 in their second outing and Pakistan reached the winning target of 69 for the loss of only one wicket. Fazal with 13 wickets in the match has been hailed as the real hero of Pakistan’s victory in this Test, but Wazir’s contribution, too, was critical for the team’s success.

Wazir had now played a pivotal role in two of Pakistan’s most famous victories against the leading exponents of world cricket of the time, showing his excellent temperament and great mental strength in the most challenging of situations.

He proceeded to tour the West Indies with the Pakistan team in 1957-58 and his batting flourished on the hard, bouncy tracks of the Caribbean. He began with a century in the opening warm-up match against Barbados, and followed this up in the opening Test with a 119 stand for the 4th wicket with Hanif, who scored 337 in Pakistan’s famous rearguard action, as they recovered from a first innings deficit of 475 to score a match saving 657 for 8 in their second innings.

His good form continued in the side games but just before the start of the 2nd test in Trinidad, Wazir had a severe allergic reaction that left him both breathless and speechless. He spent most of his time in the hospital, coming to the ground only to bat and bagged the only pair of his career.

However, he more than redeemed himself in the remaining Tests. A century in the third Test in Jamaica, was followed by 97 not out in the 4th Test in Guyana. There was also yet another century in a side match before he returned again to Trinidad for the final Test. This time there was no allergic attack and a fit Wazir top scored with a superb knock of 189 as Pakistan won by an innings and one run. Wazir had yet again contributed to a Pakistani victory over a major Test cricket powerhouse.

Wazir’s tally for the Test series was 440 runs, while Hanif totaled 628 runs. This is the only occasion in cricket history when two brothers have scored more than a 1000 runs between them in a Test series.

The West Indies tour was the peak of Wazir’s Test career. He retired from Test cricket in 1959 and his final tally of 801 runs at an average of 27.62 does very little justice to his critical role and contribution in some of the most significant successes of Pakistan’s early Test cricket history.

Wazir was nicknamed “Wisden” by his teammates because of his mastery over the rules of the game. He recalls that in the 1957-58 West Indian series, after Sobers had scored a record breaking 365 not out in Jamaica, many spectators rushed on to the field, leaving a little crater in the wicket. The West Indies had declared but Wazir advised Kardar not to send in the Pakistani openers as the cricketing rules state that if the wear and tear in the pitch is not due to natural causes it will be considered unsuitable for batting. The umpires initially disagreed, but on reading the rule book realized that Wazir was right. Pakistan were thus saved from a potentially dangerous 90 minutes of batting and the wicket was repaired for the next day’s play.

Wazir continued to contribute to the development of cricket in Pakistan after his retirement from Test cricket. He led a successful side of Pakistan Eaglets on a tour of England in 1963. The team contained 14 future Test players and 4 future Test captains, namely Intikhab, Mushtaq, Majid and Asif Iqbal. He is also credited with spotting Wasim Bari and recommending him to Karachi’s cricketing authorities.

Wazir’s professional career as a banker eventually took him to the UK, where he presently resides in the leafy suburbs of Solihull. A sprightly and fit nonagenarian, he merits belated recognition as one of the key players who helped to firmly establish Pakistan as a force on the world’s Test cricketing map.

Dr Salman Faridi is a senior surgeon, poet, sports aficionado and an avid reader with a private collection of over 7000 books. salmanfaridilnh@hotmail.com