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.
Khan is seen as Pakistan’s finest ever all-rounder and, along with Garfield Sobers, Kapil Dev and Ian Botham, one of the greatest of all time. He made his Test debut against England at Birmingham in 1971 at the age of 18 where his performance was not impressive. He took his maiden Test wicket three years later, in 1974, in another tour of England. In the same year, he made his ODI debut also against England at Nottingham. His first 4 wicket haul in Test cricket came in 1976 against New Zealand at home. He scored his maiden Test fifty at Karachi in the same series.
Imran Khan’s transformation from a raw erratic medium pacer to a fast bowler of genuine pace took place during the 3 test series in Australia in 1976-77. He took 12 wickets in the 3rd test match at Sydney to help secure an unexpected win for Pakistan. Subsequently, Imran Khan joined the Kerry Packer cricket where under the guidance of John Snow and Mike Proctor, he harnessed his fast or seam bowling skills.
Following a turmoil in Pak leadership in early 1982, Imran took over the captaincy from Javed Miandad. At the same time, he reached the peak of his career as a fast bowler and an all-rounder, topping both the bowling and batting averages against England in 1982 and then devastating the formidable Indian batting lineup at home in 1982-83 by taking 40 wickets. During a period of just over a year, he had taken 88 wickets in 13 test matches. However, his career took a severe blow after the test series against India in 1982-83, when he suffered from a stress fracture in the shin that kept him out of cricket for more than two years. A short while after returning to cricket in 1985, Imran took over the captaincy of Pakistan and during the next six years, captained Pakistan to series wins in England, India, as well as a creditable draw in West Indies. As a captain, his biggest achievment came in the twilight of his career in early 1992 when Pakistan won the cricket world cup under him.
In 88 Test matches for his country, Khan scored 3807 runs and took 362 wickets (3rd best by a Pakistani after Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis) at an average of 22.81 runs per wicket (the best by a Pakistani). He took 10 wickets in a match 6 times, which is the highest by a Pakistani. He captained his country for 48 matches. In first-class cricket, he took more than 1000 wickets at an average of 22.32 runs per wicket.
Khan 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.
He was married to 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.
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 using donations in Lahore. 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.
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 and criticised for his confused political stand on different issues. Imran Khan was appointed as Chancellor of the University of Bradford from 28 April 2005. He was in the news after Newsweek alleged that his “reading out aloud” their article describing the Quran desecration played a part in the frenzy that followed.
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Imran Khan at his best
Imran Khan - The Lion of Pakistan - Legends of Cricket - Part 2
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