Imran Khan: Pakistan's Sportsman of The Millennium - - Cricketer With Inborn Talent That Dazzled The World of Cricket

Born Imran Khan Niazi into a proud pathan family of landowners. This cricketer was born no differently than any other person. He was born in Lahore, Pakistan into a family of six. He entered the world on November 25, 1952, the only boy and seventh member of his family. His parents gave him the name Imran Khan Niazi and truly loved him since he is the only boy in their family. Best know internationally as Imran Khan also known as the Lion of Lahore, he is probably the finest cricketer to come from Pakistan. An outstanding all rounder, he became a national hero when he captained the Pakistan Cricket team to victory and brought back the World Cup in the 1991/92 Cricket World Cup which took place in Australia.

Part of a family that produced many cricketers from his maternal side, amongst which is Majid Khan who was also a Pakistan Captain as well as Javed Burqi. He captained the Oxford University Cricket Team and played for Worchester and then Sussex. He captained Pakistan from 1982 till 1988, when he decided to quit cricket while he was still at the top of his career. He dazzled the world with his amazing talent, he gave cricket another name, he is and always will be remembered by cricket fans worldwide. Imran khan, an unbelievably talented all rounder is the Legend of cricket and has reached the top like no one else.

Imran was part of a well-educated family. His parents believed that their children should get the best of education, and become something. Imran's parents have believed this and followed through with it, and that is why Imran's sisters are so successful today. His older sister Robina is an alumnus of the LSE and has a senior position in the United Nations in New York; his other sister Aleema has a master's degree in business administration and runs a successful business; Uzma is a highly qualified surgeon is working in a Lahore hospital; while his other sister Rani is a University graduate who coordinates charity work. When it was time for Imran to go attend a college, he went to the prestigious public school in Lahore, the Aitchison College. There he was by far the best player on his team, being a very fine batsmen. He was still though quite far from becoming the best in the world. As Imran grew older, his interests went from being a batsmen to being a fast bowler.

When sixteen, Imran made his debut for Lahore. Imran's cousins Javed Burki, and Majid Khan were a great part of cricket therefore when he made his test debut people thought that he made it because his family was on the Pakistan's Cricket Team.

Later, Imran had to put cricket to the side and focus more on his studies. Undoubtedly he was back again at the age of eighteen. He played admirably which resulted in him moving to England as he was chosen to play for a private school there.

As the year 1971 approached, he made his test debut while visiting England. During this tour, he was fined many times by the management because he was looked upon by his peers as being a very snobby and wild player. Also on this tour, Imran did not play as well. Because of his "not so good" bowling, Pakistan was costed to settle for a draw. This was the only test match on the tour.

When Imran was twenty-one, he was admitted in the Oxford University. For three years he studied economics and politics. In 1974 Pakistan toured England and therefore he was selected because of his form for Oxford University and his experience with speaking English. He had not succeeded to make a big mark because all three of his tests were drawn.

In 1976 Imran returned to Pakistan after being away for four years. During the 1976-77 season, Imran got a place in the Pakistan cricket team. He had impressed the team with his fantastic bowling. Later he moved to play with Sussex. The biggest reason for Imran to do this was because of his love affairs with the nightlife of London. He was quite angry at Worcester (a team he played for before he played for Sussex), because of the racism he found there. During the time he had been playing for other teams, Imran had become quite a big star. Everyone was able to see that this guy had talent and played very well. At this point, not only was he playing well, but had basically become a superstar.

Imran continued to play for Sussex, because he enjoyed it there. At this point he had become the "father" of the reverse swing. His most famous partner was Sarfaraz Nawaz, in which the partners could make a lot of runs.



Soon after, under the orders of the top official, Imran came back to Pakistan to play test cricket for the series against India. During this match, Imran hit two sixes and a four with only seven balls remaining. Because of Imran's huge success, one could easily say that Imran was one of the most adored cricketer through the land at this point.

During the early 80's Imran was not only at his cricketing peak, but had quite a few relations with women. He had a relationship with Susannah Costantine, ex-model Marie Helving, and artist Emma Sargeant. Some of his relations ended simply because of difference in culture and because of the busy and traveling life of Imran. He brought some of his relationships back home to Pakistan in which he was frowned upon because he was an individual of Muslim faith.

When Imran was thirty, he became the captain of the Pakistan cricket team. He lead them to a victory against England in their second test match.

During the years of his captaincy, Imran had broken his shin. Even though this was so, Imran continued to bowl, whether there was pain or not. Because of his injury, Imran was able to put bowling to the side and concentrate more on his batting. Imran improved his batting greatly which led him to his first century in a one day match.

In 1987, Imran decided to retire from cricket. Javed Miandad took his place. Because Pakistan's best captain was gone; the team was in somewhat of crisis. President Zia put a lot of pressure on Imran, therefore he was back as a captain in 1988.

In 1992, the world cup final was Imran's exit from cricket. He led Pakistan to a great victory over India. Pakistan had won the World Cup. It was time for Imran to retire, which brought a lot of grief to Pakistan. He ended his career with an outstanding score of 3807 runs and 362 wickets in only test matches. During his career, Imran had turned the Pakistan cricket stars into the stars they are today. The day that Imran retired was a very big day. So big that the President of that time, Zia personally tried to stop him from retiring. Imran said that he wanted to retire at the highest point of his popularity so that people would be able to remember him forever.4 He wanted his name to be in all hearts and be recognized for all his accomplishments. Imran had officially ended his career as a cricketer and is truly remembered by all.

When Imran won the world cup, he had raised twenty five million dollars to build a cancer hospital in memory of his mother. About ten years ago when Imran's mother had cancer; Imran was desperately looking for some place to take her, but none of the hospital's in Pakistan had the right facilities to treat her. When Imran took her to an outside country, it was too late; she had lost her battle against cancer. Eversnice then, Imran has wanted to build a cancer hospital. Today he has a wonderful hospital standing in Lahore, Pakistan. It is named after his mother Shawkat Khanam. Imran does not charge anything to patients who cannot afford the treatment.

In 1995, Imran decided to settle down and marry. He married Jemima Goldsmith who is the daughter of a millionaire. She was Jewish and converted to Islam by choice just before the two got married. Their wedding took place in Paris. When they came back to London, they threw a party which was more for the public.

On November 18th 1996, Imran and Jemima were the proud parent's of a baby boy. The named him Suleiman Isa. On April 10th, 1999 Jemima gave birth to yet another baby boy. They have named him Kassim.

Today, Imran has entered the world of politics and has set up his own party. He continues to fundraise for his hospital. He does this by taking tours with popular stars. Some stars donate their money to Imran's hospital. Jemima designs clothes and sells them overseas. The profit goes to the Shawkat Khanam Memorial Hospital. Also the restaurant in London, Salt and Pepper gives its profits to the hospital.