Imran Khan

Imran Khan

Imran Khan in 2007

Source: [1], 5 January 2005

Imran Khan (Mohammad Imran Khan Niazi; born November 25 1952), was a Pakistani cricketer (1971–1992) and captain of the Pakistani cricket team. He is currently a member of the National Assembly, the lower house of the Pakistani parliament.

Imran is a Pashtun/Afghan of the Niazi clan. Imran went to school in Lahore and then attended the Royal Grammar School Worcester and Keble College, Oxford where he was also Captain of the Oxford University Cricket team in 1974. He comes from a cricketing family, with two of his cousins Javed Burki and Majid Khan also having played test cricket for Pakistan.

Imran is seen as one of the finest ever all-rounders, along with Garfield Sobers, Kapil Dev, Ian Botham and Richard Hadlee. He was also one of the fastest bowlers of the world during the late 1970s and early 1980s. As a bowler, he could be described as a fast inswing bowler, who would occasionally bowl the ball that went straight. His batting was technically sound and very effective in difficult situations. More significantly, as a captain, he transformed the Pakistan team, otherwise notorious for infighting and "choking" in close matches into one of the best sides in the world.

Unimpressive debut

He made his Test debut against England at Birmingham in 1971 at the age of 18. His performance was unimpressive, his first four balls being leg-side full-tosses to Colin Cowdrey. By the end of the series, the senior cricketers in the team had written him off as a test-standard cricketer.

He didn't return to Pakistan after the series, and instead, joined the Royal Grammar School Worcester. For the next two years he hardly played any first class cricket as he found it difficult to get into the Worcestershire first eleven. To make matters worse for him, the veterans at Worcestershire, Glenn Turner, John Parker and Norman Gifford did not feel that he had a future as a fast bowler and encouraged him to concentrate on his batting and medium pace restrictive bowling.

The turning point in his career came in 1973, when his grades at school were good enough to get him an admission atOxford University. This gave him a chance to play regular domestic cricket and the added responsibility of being the captain spurred him into becoming a better batsman as well as a bowler.

Transformation into a fast bowler

Imran returned to the Pakistan cricket team briefly in 1974, but didn't do well enough to become a regular in the team. It was not until end of 1976, following a successful season with his county club, Worcestershire, that he was picked again for the national squad. His opponents were New Zealand, which included two of his former teammates from Worcestershire, John Parker and Glenn Turner. Imran picked them out for some hostile bowling, to prove to them that they were incorrect in their earlier assessment of his potential as a fast bowler.

In the begining of 1977, Imran still reckoned himself to be a better batsman than a bowler, a point of view not shared by others in the team. This changed drastically in January 1977, when in a matter of few days during the three test series in Australia, he transformed from an erratic medium pacer to a fast bowler of genuine pace. Pakistan scored an expected win in the deciding match of the series, thanks largely to his 12 wickets haul. This amazing improvement in such a short time was mentioned by Dennis Lillee in his autobiography: "He improved so much as the tour progressed that I couldn't recognize the finished product against what I had seen of him in England in 1975. At that stage of his career, Imran was if anything a better batsman than a bowler".

Following the Australian series, he toured the West Indies, where he met Tony Greig who signed him up for Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket. The two years of intense cricket at World Series Cricket molded him into a more complete fast bowler. Under the guidance of John Snow and Mike Procter, his bowling action became side-on, totally different from his javelin thrower like action of the early 1970s. This new action helped him mix his stock in-swinging deliveries with the one that left the right hand batsman. His credentials as one of the fastest bowlers of the world were further established when he finished third at a fast bowling contest at Perth in early 1979, behind Jeff Thompson and Michael Holding, but ahead of Dennis Lillee, Garth Le Roux and Andy Roberts.

As the 1980s progressed, he began to reverse swing the old ball significantly, an art that was known to very few bowlers at that time. This was a skill that he passed on to his successors, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, at the end of the decade.

Captain of the Pakistan Cricket Team

Following turmoil in Pakistan leadership in early 1982, Imran took over the captaincy from Javed Miandad. Many who thought that this would adversely affect his cricket as had happened to Ian Botham, were skeptical about this move. But as was the case when he captained Oxford University, the extra responsibility helped him take his performances to a higher level.

His first year as the captain was the peak of his career as a fast bowler as well as an all-rounder. Imran topped both the bowling and batting averages against England in the three test series in 1982, taking 21 wickets and averaging 56 with the bat. Later the same year, he devastated the formidable Indian batting on the flat Pakistani wickets by taking 40 wickets in six tests at an average of 13.95.

By the end of the series against India in 1982-83, Imran had taken 88 wickets in just over a year and 13 test matches. His career took a severe blow towards the end of the test series against India, as he suffered from a stress fracture in the shin that kept him out of cricket for more than two years. At one point during this period, he had been told by the doctors that he would never be able to bowl again, but an experimental treatment funded by the Pakistan government helped him recover by the end of 1984. He made a successful comeback in the later part of the 1984-85 season and took over the captaincy of Pakistan during the 1985-86 season.

From 1985 to the early 1992, Imran led Pakistan to its first series win in England and India, as well as to three creditable draws against the West Indies. He was declared the "man of the series" for the series wins in England and India, as well as two of the drawn series against the West Indies, further strengthening his image of reaching his peak against the strongest opposition.

Imran's captaincy was more about taking a lot of responsibility on himself or "leading from the front" as he described it and thereby setting standards for others to follow. This was contrary to the accepted norm those days of a good captain being more of a strategic planner, like England's Mike Brearley. His approach was very successful in getting the best out of the younger players of the team and the Pakistani cricket team achieved unprecedented success during this period, despite not having as brilliant a set of players as in the 1970s or the 1990s. However, his approach was often criticized by some in the media, as well as a few ex-players as "authoritarian".

As a captain, Imran was also notable for being the first cricketer to argue fervently in favor of neutral umpires. He led the initiative by asking for neutral umpires for the homes series against West Indies in 1986-87 and 1990-91, as well as the home series against India in 1989-90.

World Cup 1992

Imran's ultimate moment of glory as a captain and cricketer came at the end of his career, when he led Pakistan to victory in the World Cup Cricket 1992. The highlight of this win was the fact that Pakistan recovered from a very poor start, thanks largely to some young players in their team who had barely been heard of prior to the World Cup.

A combination of a shoulder injury that he carried through the world cup as well as differences with some senior members over the fact that many of the prizes (or rewards) were being garnered by Imran's charity hospital led to his retirement after the World Cup.

Political life and social work

Since retiring from Pakistani Test cricket, Khan has been devoting most of his time to the Shaukat Khannum Memorial Hospital, a state-of-the-art charitable Cancer Hospital that he established in Lahore using donations. In recent years he has started a socio-political movement in Pakistan known as 'Tehrik-i-Insaf' or 'Movement for Justice' and ran for office in the National Elections. He became a Member of Parliament for Mianwali in the October 2002 elections. He is very critical of the judicial system in Pakistan, which he says denies accountability for the elite class in Pakistan.

Amongst his honours include being awarded the Hilal-e-Imtiaz in 1993 by the Pakistani government, Honorary Fellow of Keble College, Oxford and Wisden Cricketer of the Year 1983.

Imran Khan is now a politician, admired for his sincerity but is also criticized for his confused political stand on some issues. Imran Khan was appointed as Chancellor of the University of Bradford from 28 April 2005.

In 1995, he married Jemima (aka Haiqa) Khan who is the daughter of the late British billionaire Sir James Goldsmith. Jemima Khan embraced Islam before she married Khan. They announced their divorce on 22 June 2004.

Further reading

• Tennant, Ivor. 1994 Imran Khan
• Imran Khan. 1988 All Round View
• Imran Khan at ESPNcricinfo