Baseer Shamsi

Brigadier Abdul Baseer Shamsi (19 September 1922 – 10 July 2015) was an officer in the Pakistan Army and a cricketer who played first-class cricket from 1953 to 1960.

Military career
In World War II Baseer Shamsi served with the 8th Punjab Regiment in Burma and Malaya. After Pakistan’s independence he served as an officer in the Pakistan Army. He was the commanding officer of 2 Baluch during the fighting on the Sialkot front in 1965.

Cricket career
He was a left-arm opening bowler who played for the Combined Services in Pakistan. He made his first-class debut in the first season of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy in December 1953, and took part in Combined Services’ tour of Ceylon in December 1953 and January 1954. In the only first-class match of the tour he took 5 for 55 and 6 for 42 in the victory over the Ceylon Cricket Association in Colombo. He was selected to play for The Rest against Pakistan in 1954-55 and made his highest score, 69, in the first innings, which was also The Rest’s top score for the match; he was also The Rest’s most successful bowler, with 3 for 67 in the first innings. In a semi-final of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy in 1956-57 he took 6 for 73 against Punjab, who nevertheless won by an innings. In his last first-class match he captained Combined Services in the inaugural season of the Ayub Trophy in 1960-61, taking 5 for 29 in the first innings against a combined Rawalpindi and Peshawar team.