Former Pakistani left-arm spinner Muhammad Nadeem Ghauri was born on October 12, 1962. He played one Test and six ODI’s in 1990. Nadeem Ghauri’s only Test match appearance came against Australia in Sydney in the third Test match of the series in 1990. He just bowled eight overs without taking any wickets in the only Australian innings. He had the ill-fated record of scoring neither a run nor taking a wicket in his solitary test match.
Under Imran Khan captaincy, he was part of the Pakistan team that toured Australia and New Zealand in 1989–90. Nadeem Ghauri made his ODI debut in January 1990 against Australia in the 4th match of the Benson & Hedges World Series (D/N), Melbourne. In the 10 over’s spell, he was just magnificent to give up 30 runs and take his first ODI wicket of David Boon.
In the next match in Sydney, he didn’t get any wickets. At Hobart against Sri Lanka, he took his career-best 2 for 51. At Adelaide against Sri Lanka, his analysis was 1 for 54. Then, in Melbourne against Australia, he was wicketless again. In the last match of his career in Sydney against Australia, his figure was 1 for 45. Therefore, in 6 ODI’s, he scored 14 runs and grabbed 5 wickets at an average of 46.00 apiece.
He played cricket for Pakistan, HBL, Lahore, Pakistan Railway, and Service Industries from 1977/78 till 1998/99. The leg spinner played 147 first-class matches in which he scored 1163 runs at 11.40 with the best of 38. Ghauri grabbed 641 wickets, with the best of 8 for 51, including 47 times five wickets in an innings and 12 times ten wickets in a match. In 127 List-A matches, he captured 152 wickets at an average of 25.51, with the best of 4 for 14.
Nadeem Ghauri was part of the incident when the Sri Lanka team traveled in a bus on the way to Gaddafi Stadium when terrorists attacked the bus, and everyone luckily escaped. Nadeem Ghauri made his umpiring debut in 2005 in a test match between Zimbabwe vs Bangladesh in Dhaka. In 2001, he made his umpiring debut in an ODI at his home ground between Pakistan vs Sri Lanka. Nadeem Ghauri was the ICC’s elite umpire of panels for many years.
In April 2013, he was suspended from umpiring for 4 years by the PCB after being found guilty of being willing to accept cash for favorable umpiring decisions. The other umpire, Anis Siddique, was banned for three years as well. Hence, in his defense, he asked to reconsider his decision in 2014, as he claimed the allegations were baseless and the decision was one-sided. Nadeem Ghauri has officiated in 17 Tests, 67 ODI’s and 6 T20Is, 106 First-Class, 65 List-A, and 36 T20.
