A midfielder, Bakri was in the Malaysia squad that qualified for the 1980 Moscow Olympics football competition (though later Malaysia boycotted the Games). He scored one of the two goals in the 2-1 win over South Korea that decided the qualifiers for the Olympics, the other goal was scored by James Wong. Bakri also represented Malaysia in other competitions, playing in the 1980 AFC Asian Cup in Kuwait, and winning gold medals in the regional Southeast Asian Games in 1977 and 1979.