There was a time when the world of cricket was ruled by wicket-keepers. And there were a number of them. Rod Marsh, Wordsworth, Alan Knott and of course our very own, young at the time, Wasim Bari. Though today he’s past his cricket playing days, he’s very much an important part of the country’s cricketing affairs, as the chief selector of the Pakistan cricket team.
Recently when we got in touch with him, Bari had a lot to talk about, especially his tastes in music. The legendary wicket-keeper remembers his school principal’s piano classes and he loved to listen to her playing the instrument. “I really used to enjoy Mrs Jennings play the piano, in fact piano was used a lot in those days, even the national anthem was played on the piano and I loved to listen to it,” says he. But as he grew up, his taste matured and he started listening ghazals as well as western music. Says he, “Even today, I listen to a lot of ghazals, especially Salamat Ali Khan of whom I am a big fan. I also listen to Noor Jahan, Lata Mangeshkar, Mehdi Hasan and Shirley Bassey. In fact I’ve listened to Shirley Bassey a lot but the works I find relaxing are those of Mehdi Hasan, Lata Mangeshkar and Salamat Ali Khan.”
Wasim Bari isn’t much into pop music and makes it quite clear that he prefers the classical stuff over the hip-hop ones. However, he does confess listening to Junaid Jamshed.
Nowadays singers are penning tunes that are cricket specific. Who can forget Jazba-e-Junoon and the a couple of songs by Strings. To this, Bari opine, “This is simply because cricket is the sort of sport that people from every walk of life love. Singers are also part of the society, some play the sport too. Celebrities like Salman Ahmed, Najam Sheraz, Nadeem and the late Waheed Murad all have and had great affinity of cricket. In fact cricket has become a common ground for entertainment.” About the trend of making remixes off classics sung by legends, Bari has a diplomatic view. “I haven’t a chance to listen to many remixes, I have listened to some and appreciated them but I still believe that the classics were the better versions. However, since the entertainment world is very much commercial, these remixes show that the classics are still enjoyed a lot.”
Talking about movies he smiles and says, “Since we used to live in Saddar that’s why going to cinemas regularly was something I really looked forward to. The crowd in those days used to be much disciplined, unlike that of today. I remember Capital, exactly opposite our house. We, the children, were allowed to go to the cinema only once a month because our parents were very strict. I remember watching classics a lot; I really don’t remember the names of all the movies but Ben Hur was the best classic western movie I’ve ever seen. Recently, I saw Troy on my VCD player.” Though not an ardent fan of Pakistani or Indian cinema, he does confess to have watched a few of the great classics. “I don’t really watch the Pakistani and Indian movies, but I have watched classics like Mughal-e-Azam and Sholay. Apart from that I also watch some Oscar winning works of the western film industry. The idea of watching classical movies is that one can learn a lot from them because the movies that are made nowadays don’t really have enough substance in them.”
One of Pakistan’s most prominent cricketers of all time, Bari has a long list of favourite actors. “I love Mel Gibson, Sean Connery, Charlton Heston, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and Brad Pitt.”
This person seems as if he didn’t like any of the Pakistani or Indian great actors. “It isn’t that I didn’t like them at all. I believe there cannot be a better actor than Dilip Kumar, the only one to match him to some extent is Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan. In the Pakistani actors Nadeem, Muhammad Ali and Waheed Murad were the best.”
Comparing Bollywood with Lollywood, Wasim Bari opines, “Lollywood hasn’t developed much for reasons not really known to me since I’m not an expert in that field. But Bollywood is developing a lot and is becoming better and better day by day. There should be an academy for the film industry which has been set up recently. But ‘dair aye durust aye’ (he smiles) and I believe we will experience a huge turnover in Lollywood in about five years from now.”
As for watching television, he predictably says, “I normally watch sports channels and love to watch tennis and soccer, and apart from that I watch cricket and hockey too. I also watch (regularly) the Oscar ceremonies every year, since my wife and daughter have a craze for it and I also take time out to watch the tributes paid to various celebrities. I am not the sort of person you would find glued to the television screen all the time but whenever I do watch, it has to be sports.”
Talking about books he says, “I used to read a lot of books. For instance I liked Roots by Alex Hailey and I have also read Khalil Jibran’s works because of his philosophical nature of writing. But the one I loved a lot was Mario Puzzo’s Godfather. I have seen the movie as well but I prefer the book because the impact of the film isn’t greater than that of the book. I have also read some autobiographies for instance of Sukarno. I still remember his famous quote, ‘the western press is free to lie and the commercial press is forced to lie; I see no difference’.”
When asked to give a wild guess as to what he would have been if not a cricketer, he says “I haven’t thought about that at all. I believe in destiny and it was my destiny that I became a cricketer and that is it.”
He also had some words of wisdom for his fans, “Be patriotic, believe in destiny and be determined for whatever you want do.”
There was a time when the world of cricket was ruled by wicket-keepers. And there were a number of them. Rod Marsh, Wordsworth, Alan Knott and of course our very own, young at the time, Wasim Bari. Though today he’s past his cricket playing days, he’s very much an important part of the country’s cricketing affairs, as the chief selector of the Pakistan cricket team.
