IMRAN KHAN
The Imran Khan Story
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The charismatic Imran Khan, arguably the greatest cricketer Pakistan has ever produced, speaks about his passion for the game, his foray in Kerry Packer World Series, his leadership of the Pakistan team, the fulfillment of his dream of opening a cancer hospital in Lahore and of the contemporary Pakistan team.
**Q: Did you grow up knowing the game at a very early age? **
A: I had two cousins who were inspiration like elder brothers. Both Majid Khan and Javed Burki became heroes – we all looked up to them, hence the desire to emulate them.
Q: Did you follow Majid Khan to England?
A: Majid was my hero. I remember we went to Rawalpindi to see him play his first Test. Majid and Javed were two role models.
**Q: Having been to school there, you knew all about Worcester? **
A: I was given a contract, the county cricket club then chose the school for me to finish the A levels.
**Q: How were you selected for the team as an 18-year-old? **
A: I played under-19 cricket. I was always a batsman in school but when I turned 17 or 18, I became a fast bowler.
**Q: You spent some time in Oxford University. How did you find that experience. **
A: I went to England with the intention of going to Oxford or Cambridge. Both my elder cousins Javed and Majid had gone to these. It’s the only place you can study and play cricket of first-class standard.
**Q: Why did you move from Worcester to Sussex? **
A: Cricket was fun, never treated it as a profession. It was a passion, I had to enjoy it. My friends were in London, not enjoying it. I had no friends in Worcester, Sussex was the perfect place.
**Q: You enjoyed some success at Sussex, winning the Gillette Cup in 1978. **
A: I enjoyed Sussex - it had a young team at the time with the same attitude. Jonny Bartley took over the captaincy and he had the right attitude to cricket (flair). I had a great time.
**Q: What was your experience of first domestic success? **
A: It was good - always wanted to be in a team that won the Gillette Cup. In 1976, Worcester was in final and lost. This time we had won. I lost a personal duel with Ian Botham, leaving him seething for revenge, whereas I was very happy for the team.
**Q: What was it like bowling with another fast bowler, Safaraz Nawaz? **
A: Safaraz was really a medium-pacer, an intelligent bowler who swung the ball, worked the batsman out. He was bowling there before me. Not in the class of Wasim Akram or Waqar Younis or Shoaib Akhtar.
**Q: What was your experience against Lillee and Thomson in 1976-77 when you went to Australia? **
A: Of the tours, I loved, the first tour to Australia. We drew the series. Australia was the No. 1 team. Secondly, I had heard about cricket in Australia all my life - that it was a beautiful place to visit. Every way was a wonderful tour. It was a great success for me. After that, I joined the World Series Cricket.
**Q: How did you find out about world series cricket? **
A: Tony Greig offered me a contract and you know it just seemed like a world XI playing Australia. I would have not dreamt of being a part of a world XI at 24. Subsequently, we became part of a cricket revolution. Kerry Packer launched the world series and we got caught up in a very big game.
Q: What was the atmosphere like? After all, it was vilified by the establishment.
A: I started off as part of World XI and then it turned into players should be recognised as professionals compared to other sports. The players were getting a bad deal. I was so enthusiastic that I would have played for free - I only wanted to perform at top level and see Pakistan rise in world cricket. When I got caught up in this, the feeling of togetherness that we all became part of a cause. When I look back, it was not much of a cause, very commercial. I felt that the game needed to be professional, other sports were overtaking cricket. In the 50s and the early 60s, cricket was a massive sport but was relegated behind tennis and soccer. I felt that something needed to be done. In the end it turned out to be all about money.
**Q: All about money? But there were some benefits, too. **
A: A lot of good things came out of that desire to make money from cricket. Not everything is good. The relegation of Test cricket was not good. The true test of a good cricketer is in Test cricket. I cannot watch a one-day match but would love to watch a good Test - it has different drama. Night cricket - bowled the first ball in a night match. Anything that brought in crowds, night cricket great help but coloured clothing but the amount of one-day internationals being played. Unless they’re regulated properly. I think it’s going to be a big burn out factor and secondly it’s going to lure the status of limited-over cricket completely. Statistics don’t matter now. Fewer people turn up to see a Test match now.
**Q: When Packer finished, you went back to the Pakistan team. **
A: I missed a Test series (during the Packer era). I missed a year of Test cricket, many games against England.
**Q: Pakistan was atrocious in 1978 but how desperate was it to get you back in? **
A: There was great crowd pressure. They’d just seen the team beat Australia Down Under. There was a lot of backing for the Pakistani team. The peolewanted to see the Kerry Packer players back in the team. Once cricketing ties resumed with India, there was no way any cricketing board would play them without top players.
**Q: What was it like playing against India? **
A: The first time I played against India, it wasn’t a very good team. It had no bowler of quality. I didn’t enjoy the series since the umpiring was of poor quality. When we won the series, I didn’t enjoy it – but I loved playing in front of home crowds.
**Q: Is play hard but fair in the poltically-charged games between Pakistan and India? **
A: The pressure on cricketers to perform is great. It can lead to acrimony on the field. It can cause players to needle one another. The player I admire the most is Sunil Gavaskar. He was a big rival but I have the greatest admiration for him.
**Q: You were appointed captain of team in 1982. What was it like? **
A: I never had an ambition to be captain but to be best all-rounder in the world and then the fast bowler, never the captain. There was rebellion against the incumbent. I was acceptable to all groups since I was at the peak of my game. My attitude to captaincy was different. I was indispensible to the team. Ian Botham failed as a Test captain and I was discouraged by that.
**Q: Do you think captaincy can be combined with other duties like Alec Stewart was loaded? **
A: It’s the capacity to bear pressure. You have to perform… bear the pressure of the whole team. In England, the pressure not too great compared to what it is in Pakistan. Look at the number of captain changes, three in a year so and never has it been the case that in England captain can lose 10 matches and still be captain. In my opinion, the England Captain is not under the same sort of pressure as his counterparts in Pakistan and India.
**Q: How did you bear the pressure? **
A: I never felt I had to be captain for life. I took it as a challenge. Life didn’t depend on it. Many have a great ambition to be captain and then cling on to it at all costs. They are humiliated and want to stay on until they’re literally booted out. Then they put pressure on themselves because they want to succeed as captain. Secondly, I think my game improved – the challenge was wonderful. I became mentally strong – I have the best performance as a bowler and batsman, the best record as a captain. My batting average was 50 when I was captain as opposed to 20 when not. Couldn’t tell others they’d played a bad shot if I wasn’t playing well myself. By trying to lead by example, I improved as a batsman.
**Q: What us your view on your own batting? **
A: I looked upon myself as a batsman and then when I got into the team, it was full of talented batsmen but no fast bowlers. Then I concentrated on bowling. My batting didn’t develop because I was batting down the order. I was a top-order batsman and didn’t have the mental makeup to bat at No. 9 or No. 10. I was hitting out. As the top batsman faded away, I became captain, my batting was needed in the team and my batting developed.
**Q: When you suffered injuries as captain at age 30, did you think that was the end? **
A: I’d never had bad injuries. It was a strange injury, stress facture of the shinbone because I was bowling too much in long spells. They didn’t diagnose it too well. I kept playing with the stress facture during the six-Test series against India. I rested for a while thinking the pain would go away, then kept playing until reached a stage huge crack in my shinbone. I never rested it and because I was at the peak of my bowling prowess. I wanted to come back quickly. I came back prematurely twice – the crack opened up and I ended up not bowling for almost three years at the peak of my career.
**Q: When you look back, do you sometimes think that you could have had a better tally of wickets? **
A: When I broke my shin bone, I had almost 90 wickets in a year in about 10 Test matches. When I couldn’t bowl for three years, I used to feel that I missed out my best bowling years but I think I learned so much. It was such a great experience to come back, you become mentally strong. It’s like going to a gymnasium and doing a workout. The more you resist the stronger you get. The mind gets strong. The process of coming back strengthened me a lot more. I guess it helped me later on in my career.
**Q: You were replaced by Javed Miandad as captain and the roles were reversed on comeback. **
A: There was no acrimony. I was prepared to play under Javed, played a series under him. He stepped down after competition losses to India. No one forgives you when you lose to India. I always stated that I’d play under anyone. We had a perfectly good relationship.
Q: Miandad was sensational in the mid-80s, why did they prefer you, not him?
A: He was a great batsman, a team batsman under pressure. But if you are a dependable player in Test matches, it doesn’t mean that you’re a good manager of people. The two are not synonymous.
Q: What is the root of all the controversy between England and Pakistan?
A: If you look back at the history, it basically boils down to the umpire. The England team assaulted an umpire in 1950s because he was poor. Pakistan always had problem with one particular umpire. The arrogance of the ICC kept putting the English umpire back - the Australians objected and he was removed. When Pakistan objected, the same umpire was thrust on them, each time the team had problems. The English go back and object to Pakistani umpires and I kept saying have neutral umpires. I led the campaign way back in 1982. Our relationship suffered - England felt done ibn by Pakistani umpires and Pakistanis felt the same way. That was the cause of the bad relationship.
**Q: What was it like in the 1987 World Cup that was hosted by Pakistan and India, with India as the defending champion? **
A: Actually, it was a great World Cup. I’ve never seen cricket field like that in Pakistan. Pakistan were the favourites to win. Before the semi-final I worked out what our weakness were. I kept thinking that there was no way the Australians could technically beat us. We had the right bowlers for those conditions. The batting line-upon could have given us a respectable total on those wickets. I’ve never had this feeling before. I was not thinking arrogantly that we were better - we were technically superior. The only team that we were threatened by was the West Indies with Viv Richards and Malcolm Marshall. It was a great World Cup until the semi-final. There was crowd support, with cricket madness sweeping the country. And then the semi-final loss in Lahore was one of the most disappointing moments of my career. At that stage, I was thinking that was it. I was leaving cricket, I had announced my retirement a year before.
**Q: You decided not to give up because you were down? **
A: No, personally I performed well in that game, I had a good World Cup. I had a tremendous year leading to semifinals, I thought that was it. My passion was going, the love-affair with the game was not there. I though that’s it, it was not meant to be. There was a tremendous pressure from the public for me to come again. The team wasn’t good. Outside Pakistan, the pressure mounted, then there was the series against the West Indies. Australia cancelled its trip and Pakistan was invited. The President publicly asked me to come back.
**Q: Pakistan won a Test match in the West Indies and was just pipped in the series. Any memories? **
A: I have never played a better series. It was a David and Goliath series. The West Indies was way better than us. It gave me the greatest pleasure, never has a team fought so much with such limited resources. Personally, it was a very good series. Javed Miandad also played well. It was an unpredictable series and nerve-wracking. It drained us. My only regret is that great series was not supervised by neutral umpires. I felt that umpires’ patriotism shone through in vital situations. When the series finely balanced – to square the series - the West Indies won only by two wickets, it was that close.
Q: West Indies was at its peak at that time. Was the Pakistan team nervous?
A: When they knew I wasn’t going, they wanted to cancel the tour. We all recognised that it was a tough tour. I never had to motivate a team more than in that series. We were slaughtered in the one-day internationals. We hadn’t played for three months. Wasim Akram and Abdul Qadir were both injured. When we won the first Test, it was a tremendous boost for our players - a shock for the Caribbeans since they hadn’t lost a Test for 15 years.
Q: How does Pakistan produce players like Wasim Akram and Abdul Qadir?
A: It had nothing to do with the structure of first-class cricket. They come from under-19 and clubs and because of their sheer talent. Unfortunately, Pakistan has the worst first-class structure in the world. Rather than having regional teams competing, it has sponsors – who should be sponsoring regional teams – field their own team. Airlines and banks play each other. It is a ridiculous system that destroys rather than develop players. In protest I stopped playing first-class cricket from 1981.
**Q: How could Wasim Akram come through to play Test cricket? **
A: Wasim was a club bowler when he was asked to bowl to the team chosen to tour New Zealand. Just giving the batsman practice. They discovered that the club bowler was better than the selected bowlers - it had nothing to do with the first-class cricket. He had never played first-class cricket. Waqar Younis and Mushtaq Ahmed had hardly played any first-class cricket – it’s unique that you have players leaping into Test cricket from under-19 or club cricket. If they could organise the first-class cricket on proper regional lines – which I have been trying to get them to do for 20 years – I think they’ll tap the talent in the country. The team wouldn’t collapse under pressure. Who’s interested in banks’ cricket? No one watches, so when pressure arises in Test cricket, these guys are not used to it.
**Q: If only the corporates are involved, are the others left in the cold? **
A: It is impossible for players from smaller cities to have any chance. Just three or four cities produce cricketers. The others come through the under-19s tournament which is regional
**Q: Was the 1992 World Cup in Australia meant to be the last big stage of your career? **
A: It wasn’t that great a team. Some of the players wouldn’t get in the current team. The players who were stars in the World Cup couldn’t make their way into the Test team especially since two of our stars Saeed Anwar and Waqar Younis both got injured. We went in without these top two players and unknown players had to be relied on. It was Inzamam-ul-Haq and Aamir Sohail’s first season. It wasn’t a very good team compared to the 1996 World Cup and 1999 World Cup sides. Somehow it gelled at the right time, we peaked at the right time and the nerves were stronger at the end. Because we’d had such a rough ride – when we came to the final matches – we could take pressure very well.
Q: When dud you think you had a chance to win the Cup?
A: I thought we’d win it the moment our luck changed. We scraped through against England – lost the match to South Africa because of rain. That cost us two points. In the game against South Africa, the team was gelling. When we beat Australia, I felt this is it now.
**Q: New Zealand was tipped in group stages. **
A: I didn’t think New Zealand was a good team, Australia was strong. New Zealand was led very well by Martin Crowe. Our strength was planning, shifting batting line-up. Crowe had the advantage of playing on home wickets. It really is wonderful when you know the conditions. He utilised the conditions very well with limited talent at his disposal. I always thought we had a chance against New Zealand. For, it did not have any match-winners apart from Crowe. It had good tactical players but we had two or three extraordinary cricketers, Wasim Akram, Javed Miandad. Mushtaq was the key – not many players could read him. That was a great asset in the one-day international.
Q: Crowe pulled a hamstring and Pakistan was behind, how did you see it?
A: We realised that two new balls were being used. Our biggest vulnerability was at the beginning of the innings. That’s when I promoted myself up the order. We specifically went with a plan that we would see the shine off. You can’t put on a big score when you lose wickets to the new ball. The plan to see off the two new balls was an intentional policy. It did go wrong when we couldn’t accelerate. I shouldn’t have played with a shoulder problem and Javed Miandad had lost ability to hit out. We got stuck. Inzamam-ul-Haq then played that incredible innings.
**Q: When you went to Melbourne to play England, did you have the psychological advantage? **
A: England couldn’t beat us. It goes in with all rounders but not genuine all rounders - they were not effective batsmen or strike bowlers. Once we got them under pressure, I felt they couldn’t perform against our bowling. Wasim Akram, Mushtaq Ahmed and Aqib Javed. If we posted a big total, I knew they couldn’t chase.
**Q: What was it like coming in to bat in the final? **
A: I had a very clear plan. We had to see off the two new balls. English bowlers swung the ball. Then we lost two wickets. No way we were going to risk another wicket. I was dropped luckily. We knew that we could defend anything above 200. There’s a lot of pressure too on the chasing team. The Pakistanis didn’t do this in the 1999 World Cup and lost wickets. There is no chance of winning when you lose so many wickets.
**Q: Did you tell your bowlers to bowl line and length? **
A: I went with a specific plan, we wanted to get wickets. We attacked them. An attacking attitude. That’s what paid off. There are two different approaches to one-day cricket. One is to limit the other team’s score, the other try to dismiss them and then limit the score. I used the bowlers to attack them. Wasim Akram bowled flat out, Aqib Javed bowled as if in Test match and then Mushtaq Ahmed immediately was used as attacking bowler.
**Q: Did you feel as if you’d got the match in the bag? **
A: The only time I thought England had a chance was when Allan Lamb had a partnership with Neil Fairbrother. The moment that partnership was broken, I didn’t think England would win.
**Q: How was the experience of winning the final at the MCG? **
A: It was a great feeling especially the way we’d won the World Cup. Personally it was wonderful. I knew I was finished cricket. I knew that the cancer hospital had to come up. That is why I played the World Cup (I would have left 2 years earlier). The Board of Fovernors insisted that I had to stay in cricket to collect the funds. So when we won the World Cup, I knew that the funds would start coming in now but never did I imagine the euphoria in the country when I got home, it was just unbelievable. The joy on the faces of the people on the streets gave me pleasure - a happiness that World Cup gave them.
**Q: Is there any particular memory that you cherish? **
A: All I remember arriving at Lahore airport, just the people along the road, 5 miles solid. It made your career worthwhile when you see and give so much happiness to so many people.
**Q: When did you conceive the idea of setting up the hospital? **
A:My mother died in 1985, it was a painful death of cancer that’s when i realised the country didn’t have a cancer hospital. So it was an idea to put it into practice. Four years later I formed a Trust, launched it with a charity cricket match against India and in 1991, the foundation-laying ceremony took place. In december 1994, the hospital opened in record time thanks to the World Cup win in 1992 which came in the middle. When poor people are afflicted by cancer, it’s a death sentence since 90 per cent cannot afford treatment, especially the children. It opened in 1994, and it’s already treated over 400,000 patients in five years. Treats 85 per cent free. It is the only private hospital without any government help.
**Q: Was it as struggle to set something like that up in Pakistan? **
A:It was greater struggle than anything else in my life. When I announced this, I didn’t realise a general hospital is easier to build than a speciality hospital. There is hardly any in the third world, and is very difficult to run. The running costs are high and they’re subsidised by government. You need to have a very high quality diagnostic centre attached to it. You need technicians, equipment etc 85 per cent free treatment is not possible without government help. The public helped me. Government saw me as a political threat and wanted to close the hospital to finish me through underhand means. I worked on hospital for 10 years. I’m hauled to a Lahore court on charges of charges. Fortunately people didn’t believe the government and the case collapsed as a sham. Since then the hospital has gone from strength to strength.
**Q: Was it a personal achievement? **
A: The opening of the hospital was the happiest day in my life. Never had such a sense of achievement, a feeling of fulfillment as when the doors of the hospital opened. Though I’m Chairman of the Board of Governors, I don’t interfere with the running. I realise that children can be saved, they have a chance now. Nothing in cricket came close as the feeling of fulfillment the hospital gave me.
Q: You were on the wrong side of government. Is that why you didn’t appear in the stadium.
A: Politics (in Pakistan) is run by corrupt mafias. I challenged them when I entered politics. Politics is big business. You have nothing and you soon become a billionaire. When you attack them, they don’t give you an easy ride. They blocked me out of the news when the 1996 World Cup took place in Pakistan. Not only was I not invited to the stadium, they showed the highlights of the 1992 world cup, minus the captain.
**Q: Has cricket more become aggressive now? **
A: One-day cricket has made Test cricket more exciting. The tempo of the one-day game is such that players are attacking much more. The defence, the techniques have somewhat slackened. Sunil Gavaskar had good defensive qualities, it was a challenge to get him out – that’s now gone down especially in Pakistan. Cricket is much more attacking thanks to one-day cricket.
**Q: Is it right that Pakistan players have everything except heart? **
A: The best team under pressure is Australia because of Sheffield Shield cricket. It’s the highest standard of first class cricket in the world. When I played for New South Wales against Queensland, it was like playing a Test match. It was so aggressive. They’re equipped at the top level to take pressure. In Pakistan, when two banks are playing against each other, there’s no crowd interest, no press interest, no one’s pushed. It could be a benefit game. It’s just an irrelevant game. Selectors would not look at the results of the domestic cricket. So when they come up in the big time, they have the talent. As long as the going’s easy, the talent shines but when the pressure falls on it where it needs to understand to cope. You need practice to play under pressure. They don’t have that practice. Time and time again you see them collapsing.
**Q: What do you think of the World Cup final in June 1999? **
A: My heart wanted Pakistan to win. My mind told me that Australia would win. Pakistan had collapsed against South Africa in the group match. Chasing a modest 230 against India, they collapsed. The batting was not coping. I felt they couldn’t beat Australia in the game of pressure. Anything 220 upwards would have challenged the Aussies but the moment Pakistan lost wickets, I didn’t think the team could cope with the pressure.
**Q: Cricket is different from other sports. Why is it so special? **
A: It requires technique, guts and (the ability to face) pressure of the crowd. One mistake and you’re out. There is a risk of physical injury. It is probably where leadership matters most. A captain can make more difference in cricket than in any other sport, which is why a manager can never do the job in cricket as in other sports. It’s so obvious leadership can lift the team up. That’s why Steve Waugh was the man of 99 World Cup. The Australians were not a balanced team but the captain lifted the team up. Martin Crowe did that in 1992. The captain plays a bigger part in cricket than any other sport which also makes it unique.
Q: Does cricket have a greater world view than other sports?
A:Cricket has a greater drama. People remember Test matches. I can never forget a Test match against India in Bangalore in 1987. Real drama that unfolded over four days, the crowd was involved. Millions were mesmerised by that drama. Six persons died. You’ll never forget it.
[This message has been edited by ehsan (edited August 02, 2002).]