Imran Khan: A journey from a cricket legend to a popular politician

IMRAN Khan Niazi, born in 1952 in Lahore, Pakistan, was destined to become the best cricketer in Pakistan and one of the best in the world. He was also one of the best looking men to represent his country. Having studied in Pakistan and later on in Oxford University, the United Kingdom, he was well spoken, self-confident and extremely polite.
The chance to meet with him and maybe interview him came right here in Jeddah at the house of the Pakistani ambassador where Imran was the guest of honor and I was invited to join a select group of gentlemen in a consular house next to a departmental store off Madinah Road. We shook hands and exchanged a few words as I realized he was already one of the most famous men in the world of cricket. He had played international cricket for many years while continuing his higher education.
He was Pakistan’s most successful cricket captain and admired by millions all over the world including ladies in the East and the West and I am sure that hundreds of thousands must have dreamed of marrying him someday.
But when the time came for him to marry he chose a British girl and had two sons from her. But the marriage did not turn out to be a great success as she could not adjust to life in Pakistan or may be he was not her prince charming or may be she was not the dream girl he had expected after all.
He was the country’s most successful cricket captain and played for the team from 1971 to 1992. After announcing retirement from cricket at the end of the 1987 World Cup he was requested by public to lead the team again. He accepted the request and at the age of 39 he captained his team to World Cup victory in 1992. He scored 3,807 runs and claimed 362 wickets in Test cricket making him one of the eight world players to have achieved an “All-rounder’s Triple” in Test matches, according to his biography. In July 2010 he was inducted into the International Cricket Council (ICC) Hall of Fame.
His venture outside cricket was less than successful as he entered the political fray of Pakistan and could not for more than one reason make a huge impression on the people through his political party Tahreek-e-Insaf (movement for freedom). Imran was the only son of Ikramullah Khan Niazi and his wife Shaukat Khanum. They had four daughters.
Apart from his supremacy in cricket, Imran, I think would be remembered fondly for his charitable work which included setting up of a world-class Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust bearing the name of his mother which has the country’s first only cancer hospital and research center using donations exceeding $ 25 million raised from his many admirers all over the world, and he plans to continue such good work in other parts of the country.
As the party progressed while I was taking mental notes, those present congregated around him and he fielded several questions with his usual ease and politeness showing none of the pomposity or conceit of great men like him. He attracted attention naturally and spoke softly and not everything was cricket and Test matches. He was modest I thought and I realized that he would progress in due course once he had settled down and had something else to occupy him outside the realm of cricket.
The chance came in 1995 when he married a British girl called Jemima, daughter of Goldsmith family. They had two sons Sulaiman Isa and Kasim, although the marriage was tough in his own words but ended amicably and he meets his two sons regularly by arrangement with his wife. He now lives alone in Bani Gala, Islamabad. He went into the thick of Pakistani politics with a political party of his own. His proclaimed political platform and declarations include Islamic values, free enterprise by regulating the economy and creating a welfare state.

n Farouk Luqman is an eminent journalist based in Jeddah.