Mr Khan's charisma and appeal helped him gain popularity and would later distinguish the former cricketer from other career politicians in Pakistan. In my cricket career I would keep a log and write down the areas I had failed in so I could make them strengths. "I have never claimed to be an angel," he told The Guardian in 2006. Imran Khan was pictured with celebrities from all over the world, including Prince Diana who visited him in Pakistan.
It was the first of Mr Khan's three marriages. Three years after his World Cup win, Mr Khan married British heiress Jemima Goldsmith, who was the daughter of one of the world's richest men at the time, Sir James Goldsmith. While playing Kerry Packer's tournament, he wore a T-shirt that said: "Big Boys Play At Night."
Mr Khan was open about being a bachelor during his cricket days and this popularity helped glamorise cricket. He said he never drank alcohol as part of his commitment to his Islamic faith, but he still gained a reputation as a playboy on the London nightclub scene. "Sex, or at least the idea of it, is never far from Imran Khan," an article in Indian magazine Caravan said.Īt the height of the cricketer's stardom, his face was everywhere, and tabloids were constantly covering his numerous relationships with women like Goldie Hawn, Liza Campbell, or "mysterious blondes". His success on the pitch had made him a household name, but it was his life outside of cricket that earned him global attention. And it was in Perth that he got the title of one of the fastest bowlers in the world during a contest.
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He faced the team and was signed up for Kerry Packer's commercial competition, World Series Cricket. Imran Khan's success as a cricketer made him a household name. "I took him as a very good cricketer, but I was not interested in cricket at the time."Īfter heading back to Pakistan in 1976, Mr Khan got a permanent position in the national cricket team, which was the start of an ongoing relationship with Australia. "He was a young boy who was very smart and all the girls from universities were after him, but I never thought about him in this way. "I was in college when he became famous, but I never thought of him as a leader of a political party or something like that," says Nusrat Wahid, who went on to join Mr Khan's party and was elected to Pakistan's National Assembly. He went on to Oxford, where he captained the university's team while studying politics and philosophy. Imran Khan was always destined to be part of Pakistan's biggest sport. He was born into a great cricketing family, stood out in his local team in Lahore, and played at a Grammar School in England where he completed high school. It's another cautionary tale about a celebrity who became a political leader. With the cricket champion turned politician unable to rely on his sportsmanship and fame anymore, he is engineering chaos to get back into power.īut will it work? The ABC has spoken to some of Mr Khan's closest allies, Pakistani experts, and staunch opponents who are all split on whether he can succeed in becoming prime minister again.
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While no leader has ever completed a full five-year parliamentary tenure in Pakistan, it is believed a falling out with the military resulted in Mr Khan being sensationally ousted in April. Mr Khan ascended to the country's highest office in 2018.
Some even called him a god.Įxactly 30 years on, however, the shine has worn off. His success on the pitch had undoubtedly made him the King of Pakistan, an unrivalled hero in a cricket-obsessed nation. "Amazing, the World Cup fever," he said humbly to a journalist. The streets were full of fans, hordes of young women screamed his name, bands played traditional music, and police were beating away people just so the cricketing legend could get through.
It was 1992 and he had just led the country's cricket team to its first, and only, World Cup win in Australia. Imran Khan was casually dressed when he stepped off a bus in Pakistan's biggest city of Lahore to kisses and hugs from so many fans he could barely breathe.
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