IMRAN KHAN (PAKISTAN)

Introduction:

Imran Khan (born on 25 November 1952) is a Pakistani politician and cricketer. He played international cricket for two decades in the late twentieth century and, after retiring, entered politics. Besides his political activism, Imran Khan is also aphilanthropist, cricket commentator, chancellor of the University of Bradfordand founding chairman of the Board of Governors of Shaukat Khanum Hospital. He also founded Namal College, Mianwali in 2008. Imran 

khan was Pakistan's most successful cricket captain, leading his country to victory at the 1992 Cricket World Cup, playing for the Pakistani cricket team from 1971 to 1992, and serving as its captain intermittently throughout 1982-1992. After retiring from cricket at the end of the 1987 World Cup in 1988, owing to popular demand he was requested to come back by the president of Pakistan Zia ul Haq to lead the team once again. At the age of 39, Imran Khan led his team to Pakistan's first and only One Day World Cup victory in 1992. With 3807 runs and 362 wickets in Test cricket, he is one of eight world cricketers to have achieved an All rounder's Triple' in Test matches. On 14 July 2010, Khan was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of fame. In April 1996, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf "Movement for Justice" political party was established and Khan 

became its chairman. He represented Mianwali as a member of the National Assembly from November 2002 to October 2007, he was again elected on 11 May 2013, while his party gained 35 seats in the National Assembly. Global Post mentioned him third in a list of nine world leaders of 2012 and recognized Khan as the face of the anti drone movement in Pakistan. According to Asia Society, Khan was voted as Asia’s Person of the Year 2012. As the Pew Research Center, in 2012 a majority of Pakistani respondents offered a favorable opinion of Khan. The survey also revealed Imran Khan's fame among youth. On 31 December 2014, news reports floated saying Imran Khan has married British Pakistani journalist Reham Khan.

Personal Life:

Imran Khan was born in Lahore into a family of Pashtun origin, the only son of Ikramullah Khan Niazi, a civil engineer, and his wife Shaukat Khanum. Long settled in Mianwali in northwestern Punjab, the family are of Pashtun ethnicity and belong to the Niazi Shermankhel tribe. Niazi is a branch of Lohani pashtuns. A quiet and shy boy in his youth, Khan grew up 
with his four sisters in relatively affluent ''upper middle class'' circumstances and received a privileged education. He was educated at Aitchison College in Lahore and the Royal Grammar School Worcester in England, where he excelled at cricket. In 1972 he enrolled in Keble College, Oxford where he read philosophy, politics and economics, graduating with honours in 1975. Imran Khan's mother hailed from the Burki family which had produced several successful cricketers, including such household names as cricketers Javed Burki, Majid Khan and, paternally (from the Niazi tribe then), to Misbah ul Haq. Imran Khan is also a descendant of the Sufi warrior poet and inventor of the Pashto alphabet, Pir Roshan, who hailed from his maternal family's ancestral Kaniguram town in South Waziristan, and a cousin to one of Pakistan's leading English language columnist, Khaled Ahmed. On 16 May 1995, Khan married Jemima Goldsmith, in a two minute ceremony conducted in Urdu in Paris. A month later, on 21 June, they were married again in a civil ceremony at the Richmond registry office in England. Jemima converted to Islam.Imran 
Khan's later decision to join politics alarmed opposition politicians and intelligence agencies mainly because of Jemima's half Jewish ancestry, this became a point of criticism especially by Islamic parties who alleged that he was related to 'Zionists'. The couple have two sons, Sulaiman Isa and Kasim. Imran Khan also have a daughter from a previous partner. Rumours circulated that the couple's marriage was in crisis. Jemima denied the rumours by publishing an advertisement in Pakistani newspapers. On 22 June 2004, it was announced that the couple had divorced, ending the nine year marriage because it was "difficult for Jemima to adapt to life in Pakistan". Imran Khan now resides alone in Bani Gala farmhouse. In November 2009, Imran Khan underwent emergency surgery at Lahore's Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital to remove an obstruction in his small intestine. On 6 January 2015 Daily Mail, after months of rumors, confirmed that Imran Khan has married Reham Khan. According to First Post, Imran’s entire family, including his sister, was against the wedding and were ‘surprised’ when he went ahead and tied the knot in spite of their opposition. On 8 January 2015, he married her in a private Nikah ceremony at his house Bani Gala in Islamabad.

Career:

Imran Khan first class cricket debut at the age of sixteen in Lahore. By the start of the 1970s, he was playing for his home teams of Lahore A 1969-70, Lahore B 1969-70, Lahore Greens 1970-71 and, eventually, Lahore ''1970-71''. Imran Khan was part of University of Oxford's Blues Cricket team during the 1973-1975 seasons. At Worcestershire, where he played county cricket from 1971 to 1976, he was regarded as only an average medium pace bowler. Imran Khan made his test cricket debut against England in 1971 in the city of Birmingham. Three years 

later, he debuted in the One Day International ODI match, once again playing against England at Nottingham for the Prudential Trophy. After graduating from Oxford and finishing his tenure at Worcestershire, he returned to Pakistan in 1976 and secured a permanent place on his native national team starting from the 1976-1977 season, during which they faced New Zealand and Australia. 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. His credentials as one of the fastest bowlers of the world started to become established when he finished third at 139.7 km/h in a fast bowling contest at Perth in 1978, behind Jeff Thomson and Michael Holding, but ahead of Dennis Lillee, Garth Le Roux and Andy Roberts. As a fast bowler, Khan reached the peak of his powers in 1982. In 9 Tests, he got 62 wickets at 13.29 each, the lowest average of any bowler in Test history with at least 50 wickets in a calendar year. In January 

1983, playing against India, he attained a Test bowling rating of 922 points. Although calculated retrospectively ''ICC player ratings did not exist at the time'', Imran Khan's form and performance during this period ranks third in the ICC's All Time Test Bowling Rankings. Imran Khan achieved the all rounder's triple ''securing 3000 runs and 300 wickets'' in 75 Tests, the second fastest record behindIan Botham's 72. He is also established as having the second highest all time batting average of 61.86 for a Test batsman playing at position 6 of the batting order. He played his last Test match for Pakistan in January 1992, against Sri Lanka at Faisalabad. Imran Khan retired permanently from cricket six months after his last ODI, the historic 1992 World Cup final against England in Melbourne, Australia. He ended his career with 88 Test matches, 126 innings and scored 3807 runs at an average of 37.69, including six centuries and 18 fifties. His highest score was 136 runs. As a bowler, he took 362 wickets in Test cricket, which made him the first Pakistani and world's fourth bowler to do so. In ODIs, he played 175 matches and scored 3709 runs at an average of 33.41. His highest score remains 102 not out. His best ODI bowling is documented at 6 wickets for 14 runs.

Captaincy:

At the height of his career, in 1982, the thirty year old Imran Khan took over the captaincy of the Pakistan cricket team from Javed Miandad. As a captain, Khan played 48 Test matches, out of which 14 were won by Pakistan, 8 lost and the rest of 26 were drawn. He also played 139 ODIs, winning 77, losing 57 and ending one in a tie. In the team's second match, Khan led them to their first Test win on English soil for 28 years at Lord's. Imran Khan's first year as captain was the peak of his legacy as a fast bowler as well as an all rounder. He recorded the best Test bowling of his career while taking 8 wickets for 58 runs

 against Sri Lanka at Lahore in 1981-1982. He also topped both the bowling and batting averages against England in three Test series in 1982, taking 21 wickets and averaging 56 with the bat. Later the same year, he put up a highly acknowledged performance in a home series against the formidable Indian team by taking 40 wickets in six Tests at an average of 13.95. By the end of this series in 1982-1983, Khan had taken 88 wickets in 13 Test matches over a period of one year as captain. This same Test series against India, however, also resulted in a stress fracture in his shin that kept him out of cricket for more than two years. An experimental treatment funded by the Pakistani government helped him recover by the end of 1984 and he made a successful comeback to international cricket in the latter part of the 1984-1985 season. In India in 1987, Imran Khan led Pakistan in its first ever test series win and this was followed by Pakistan's first series victory in England during the same year. During the 1980s, his team also recorded three creditable draws against the West Indies. India and Pakistan co hosted the 1987 World Cup, but neither ventured beyond the semi finals. Khan retired from international cricket at the end of the World Cup. In 1988, he was asked to return to the captaincy by the president Of Pakistan, General Zia Ul Haq, and on 18 January, he announced his decision to rejoin the team. Soon after returning to the captaincy, Khan led Pakistan to another winning tour in the West Indies, which he has recounted as "the last time I really bowled well". He was declared Man of  the Series against West Indies in 1988 when he took 23 wickets in 3 tests. Imran Khan's career high as a captain and cricketer came when he led Pakistan to victory in the 1992 Cricket World Cup. Playing with a brittle batting line up, Imran Khan promoted himself as a batsman to play in the top order along with Javed Miandad, but his contribution as a bowler was minimal. At the age of 39,  Imran Khan took the winning last wicket himself.

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