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Handsome
Legend: Imran Khan
He was smart, handsome, tall,
reserved, and dazzled the world with his amazing
talent, he gave cricket another name and made cricket
popular with his personal looks and talent. Imran khan
was an unbelievably talented all rounder who’s name has been mentioned
several times in Guinness World Record as one of the best all rounders (person who
can bat as well as ball) in the history of cricket and has reached the top like
no one else.
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. Hisparents gave him the name
Imran Khan Niazi and truly loved him since he is the only boy in their family.
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.
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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. (Nepotism)
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 coasted 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 of Pakistan Zia ul Haq asked him Personally to come back, therefore
he was back as a captain in 1988.In later interviews he mentioned that
personally his passion for the game was no more in 1987, he was already
recognized around the globe.
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1992 was the year
of the World Cup Cricket competition, the most prestigious cricket event,
Pakistan’s start was not good and lost couple of games and was looking to be
kicked out in early stages he later told that during that time the manager of
cricket team came to him and asked him that should I buy the tickets to go back
home imran replied angrily that don’t come to me again and remember you are not
out until you are really out. The Tiger was absolutely correct ,he gathered his
team gave them a lecture inspired the spirits of the young team with his
charisma, and the team replied with going into final. In the final at the age of
39, Imran showed no signs of his age scoring highest runs for his team. And
then with his prolific captaincy he smacked the opponents, took the last wicket
for his team and made history by winning the First and sole World Cup for his
motherland.
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.
Social work
For more than four years after retiring from cricket in 1992, Khan focused his
efforts solely on social work. By 1991, he had founded the Shaukat Khanum
Memorial Trust, a charity organization bearing the name of his mother, Mrs.
Shaukat Khanum. As the Trust's maiden endeavor, Khan established Pakistan's
first and only cancer hospital, constructed using donations and funds exceeding
$25 million, raised by Khan from all over the world. Inspired by the memory of
his mother, who died of cancer, the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital &
Research Centre, a charitable cancer hospital with 75 percent free care, opened
in Lahore on 29 December 1994.Khan currently serves as the chairman of the
hospital and continues to raise funds through charity and public donations.
During the 1990s, Khan also served as UNICEF's Special Representative for Sports
and promoted health and immunization programmes in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri
Lanka and Thailand.
On 27 April 2008, Khan's brainchild, a technical college in the Mianwali
District called Namal College, was inaugurated. Namal College was built by the
Mianwali Development Trust (MDT), as chaired by Khan, and was made an associate
college of the University of Bradford in December 2005. Currently, Khan is
building another cancer hospital in Karachi, using his successful Lahore
institution as a model. While in London, he also works with the Lord’s Taverners,
a cricket charity.
Marriage
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Imran Khan with his wife jemima
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In 1995, Imran
decided to settle down and marry. He married Jemima Goldsmith who is the
daughter of a
billionaire. 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 Tehreek-a-Insaf (Campaign for Justice). The party is
struggling and in the two elections it participated in, it could get none seat
in the first and won a single seat in the next election that seat was of Imran
himself. So he himself has become Member National Assembly 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.
The marriage of former Pakistan cricket star Imran
Khan and UK socialite Jemima Goldsmith has ended in 2004
.However they remain very close friends and jemimma khan
decided to keep his name for rest
of her life.
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