Memories Of Greatest Cricketers - - #8 Shane Warne

[P_R]

Great #4
Imran Khan

One of Pakistan's greatest cricketers. One of the game's most popular captains. In his heydey he was among the quickest bowlers in the game and consistently improved his batting to become a good allrounder. He is best known for leading his team to the 1992 World Cup triumph. Let us know more about him.....

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[sivank]

Thanks Prabhu for nominating my favorite cricketer the great Khan, Imran. In my opinion Imran was the greatest cricketer Pakistan has ever produced. Ofcourse, there were better batsmen and better, faster bowlers came from pakistan. Still, Imran was the born Leader. I can talk about this legend for hours and hours. He was the main reason why pakistan became such a formidable force in Cricketing world. No one attained the heights Imran reached in Pakistan cricket. The way how I see things it is likely that one one would achieve this place in Pakistan cricket.

Imran Khan Niazi hailas from a very wealthy family, who were able to send their son to England for studies. Imran aged 17 in fact played against the Indian Team of 1971 in a practice match with worchester. Again, he played against the visiting Indian Team of 1974. Gavaskar, fondly remémbers the encounter with the young Imran in his memoires. Tha slim and well built Imran actually made his debut for Pakistan Test team in 1971 against England. Intikab Alam the genial pak. captain gave a chance for the 17 year old whou couldn´t make a big impact in his debut. He sprayed a lot while trying to be faster. Logically, he was dropped and it took 3 years for him to play his second test in 1974. During this Test he showed that he could bat as well. He was at those days considered as a second line bowler who could bat a bit. This was the situation till 1976.

A dramatic change went through Imran after 1975. He started playing for Sussex under Tony Greig. I think he learnt a lot from Tony Greig at those times. He beacme really good at the art of fast bowling. Being narrow hipped and broad shouldered he was the man girls were looking for. Whenever and whereever he played the girls were thunder struck. Still Imran was on the beginning stages of his great career

[P_R]

Nice intro. Hope to read more. Particularly about...

1) About his pace. Have heard from Wasim Akram that he was among the fastest bowlers in his heyday. And if the injury that ate up a couple pf years (?) of his career had not happened, he would have been among the leading wicket takers.
2) Picking cricketers from nowhere: Akram, Waqar, Abdul QAdir, Inzamam ul Haq
3) The tour of Pak where he decimated India with his outswingers - a battery of slips and gullies
4) His gentleman tag. Gavaskar and Imran shared a good camaraderie I hear. I once heard Gavaskar say: "those were the days when opposing captains used to be able to talk without the umpires having to come in between and separate them"
5) While searching for a pic there was one I saw where Imran was pulling up Saleem Yousuf for claiming a catch which was grounded
6) His relationship with Javed Miandad. It was always thorny I hear but they put on many partnerships on the field. The one I remember best is the '92 WC final. You can recount more memorable ones too.

[Murali Srinivas]

Imran was a Pathan whose ancestors hailed from NWFP but Imran was a Lahore boy. [The eternal ego clash between Imran and Javed can be traced to the historical rivalry between Lahore and Karachi - Javed being the street figher of Karachi]. Coming to the cricket part of Imran, it was not a great start (Sivan had said this). He and Javed made their World Cup debut in the inaugural cup of 1975.

He shot into prominence during the 1978 Test series against India played at Pakistan. Cricketing relationship was revived after 17 years (the last series between the sub continent rivals was in 1961) and Pakistan floored India 2-0. Zaheer Abbas and Sarfaraz were the heroes with Imran chipping in with the side being captained by Majid Khan (Imran was related to Majid).

Next year 1978- 1979 saw Pakistan touring India and India took a a sweet revenge by beating them 2-0. That was the tour when Imran came to India for the first time as a player and the crowds simply loved him. Asif Iqbal captained the side but lost the same just like Bedi was axed after the 1978 tour.

The real Imran emerged in the 1982-83 series played in Pakistan. With his famous reverse swing, Imran demolished India with a haul of 40 wickets and India lost 3-0. Nobody could fathom the swing and our batsmen were all at sea. If my memory serves me right, except Jimmy, no other batsmen could counter Imran and that bowling performance ended the illustrious career of Vishy.

Subsequent World cup (1983) saw him playing as a batsman because he had an injury (shin or ankle?) which did not allow him to bowl. The return series in India in 1983 was a tame affair with all the three tests getting drawn. Same way the next year 1984 series (2 tests and the third abandoned due to the assasscination of Indira Gandhi) produced a resultless series.

There was no Imran for the 1985 World Series Benson & Hedges Cup which India won beating Pakistan in the finals. But he had his sweet revenge when he captained the side that won the 1986 Auatralasia cup on 18th April, 1986, at Sharjah but Javed took the entire credit with the last ball six of a full toss.

The captain in him came out in 1987, about which I will come back.

Regards

[sivank]

After the 1974 tour in England Imran found himself out of the team other than the 175 WC. Intikhab Alam has given way to Mushtaq Muhammed as the new captain of the Pak Team. MM preferred Sarfaraz and Asif Masood as the new ball openers.

It took more than 2 years for Imran to play again a test series this time against the Kiwis in Pakistan. Imran has become a very good pace bowler during this period thanks to the numerous games he underwent with Sussex. What a come back it was. Pak won the 3 test series with 2-0 by winning the first two tests and drawing the last one. Imran took 13 wickets in that series and from then on there was no more turning back. Subsequently Pak visitied Australia for a 3 test series.

Australia was with their full team with Lillee and Thompson raring to go after their debacle with WI. A bouncer war started. AUS with Lillee, Thompson and gilmour were definitely the stronger side. But Pak retaliated strongly with Imran, Altaf and Sarfaraz.

With the first test drawn and the second test won very comfortably by Aussies Greg Chappell was very confident about the third test in sydney. Lillee was bowling his heart out.

GSC won the toss and elected to bat. Imran was breathing fire. He and Sarfaraz tore the Aussies for a mere 211. Imran took 6 wickets in the first innings. He was so fast that made sarfaraz like a slow bowler. Aussies were so surprised at the pace of Imran and Lillee showed why he was considered as the best fast bowler of the world at that time. Bouncers were used even at the non regular batsmen.

The second innings of Aussies was a repetion of the first innings. Imran was even more faster and again picked 6 wickets for 59 leaving the Pak to score 32 for a win, which they did after loosing 2 wickets to Lillee. It was a very ugly match where the umpires had to warn Imran and Lillee for bowling bouncers at the non Regular batsmen. The victory against Australia was the moment for Imran to announce the world that even the sub continent can produce world class fast bowlers. A very shattered Greg Chappell admitted in the press conference that he was surprised at the pace Imran produced and he also admitted that at times Imran was as good as Lillee, which was the greatest compliment one can ever get from an Australian.

After the australian tour the Pak team visited WI to play a 5 test series where again the fast bowlers were the center of attraction. WI with their battery of fast bowlers against the pace trio of Pak. Imran was again the best bowler for the paks with 25 wickets from 5 tests. WI won the series with 2-1.

Imrans sussex captain Tony Greig with Ian Chappell and Asif Iqbal were the cheif architects for forming the Kerry Packer´s World Series of Cricket. Pakistan was robbed of the servcices of Imran, Sarfaraz, Mushtaq Muhammed, Asif Iqbal, Majid Khan and few others. Eventhough Javed was included in the side of WORLD XI up to my knowledge he never took part in any of those games. Instead he was palying for Pakistan under Wasim Bari´s captaincy.

Imran was a huge success in Australia with the WSC. He learnt a lot from other fast bowlers like Andy Robers, Mike Procter, Garth la Roux. The cameraderie was very good between the WSC Australia, WSC WI and WSC World XI since they were outcasted as rebels.

[Iqbalvora]

Imran was originally a raw pace bowler but gradually developed batting skills. He was one of the fastest bowlers during his era.

On 82 series, some factually incorrect information ! May I correct :


It was Imran’s Indipper which caused havoc. There was no concept of reverse swing those days. Imran’s favourite delivery is inswinger but this time, the swing was too much. It came from wide outside the off stump to middle stumps !

Apart from Mohinder, Sunil Gavaskar scored 430 + runs @ an average of 48. Considering that he was an opener, you can assess the value of 48 as an overall avge. He scored 1 century and 3 fiftees plus 1 forty I think. I remember Gavaskar even carrying his bat once ! proof of his mastery over Imran.

Yashpal Sharma played the later part of the series and did well. He also played Imran confidently. Even Shastri played reasonably well in whatever chances he got.

The real failures were Vishvanath, Sandeep Patil, Vengsarkar etc. Guys like Arun Lal ( who talks so many things about Cricket now ) also failed.

Kapil was considered an arch rival of Imran and everyone expected a good contest between them. Sadly Kaps failed with the bat
Before the series, Sunil said that Pak will crush us to Pulp ! and India lost. Sunil lost his captaincy to Kapil who led the team to WI.

Though India lost there also, the team went to England for the WC with confidence having faced the most fearsome bowling attack.

Vishvanath was given extended life by his BIL. Else, he would have been axed before. Finally, the Imran indippers ended his career. The Karachi test saw Vishvanath shouldering arms to an indipper which vicisouly came in sharply from outside the offstump to take the stumps ! Many guys fell for this similar delivery.

It was a 6 test series out of which Iindia lost 0-3 . The latter part of the series saw Indians playing Imran to some extent.

The series in India in 83 .There was no Imran at all ! The team was led by Zaheer Abbas.This was conducted after the worldcup. India won the onedayers while the tests were drawn.

India won the Victory cup in Australia under Gavaskar, the captaincy went to Kapil again. The team went to Sharjah and won a series sensationally ! Imran bowled well there.

Imran was never the same threat after that 82 series. Srikanth used to blast him . Imran actually bowled well in a series in England . That was his real boosting series before the Indian series.

Imran was a very good captain. Astute leader. Commanded respect fm members.

Groomed world class guys like Wasim Akram, Waqar Yunis etc

[sivank]

Nice intro. Hope to read more. Particularly about...

Hi Prabhu, I will try to answer some of your questions as far as I know and heard from my pakistani friends

1) About his pace. Have heard from Wasim Akram that he was among the fastest bowlers in his heyday. And if the injury that ate up a couple pf years (?) of his career had not happened, he would have been among the leading wicket takers.

Imran had pace from the beginning. In fact he got one of the visiting Indian batsman of 1974(England) in his very first over with his bouncer. The batsman held the bat like periscope and got caught. He was considered one of the fast bowlers of that time. Infact in 1979 Imran took part in a fast bowler competition where the best 10 fast bowlers took part. He clocked a steady 139 to 143 in his hey day. Due to his shin trouble he couldn´t sustain his pace for a long time but he was a very clever bowler. He missed lot of tests due to his injury and he played in lot tests only as a batsman without bowling. Gavasker writes in his memoires that the 3 overs Imran bowled him in Calcutta (not sure)before Imran broke down due to back problems was the fastest he ever faced.


2) Picking cricketers from nowhere: Akram, Waqar, Abdul QAdir, Inzamam ul Haq

Imran had an eye for young hungry youngsters whom he took personally under his wings and groomed. I am not sure about Abdul Qadir since AQ was playing from 77/78 and at that time Imran was not the leader which he became later

3) The tour of Pak where he decimated India with his outswingers - a battery of slips and gullies

I will write about the 1978 tour separately


4) His gentleman tag. Gavaskar and Imran shared a good camaraderie I hear. I once heard Gavaskar say: "those were the days when opposing captains used to be able to talk without the umpires having to come in between and separate them"


Up to my knowledge Imran was gentleman on the field. I have never heard of any controversy. Ofcourse Gavaskar had a good relationship with Imran from 1976 as they stayed in Delhi at the same house for benifit match


5) While searching for a pic there was one I saw where Imran was pulling up Saleem Yousuf for claiming a catch which was grounded


you should try for a picture of his bowling. The smooth run up with a beautiful hop and the side wards delivery is perfect


6) His relationship with Javed Miandad. It was always thorny I hear but they put on many partnerships on the field. The one I remember best is the '92 WC final. You can recount more memorable ones too


As Murali mentioned Imran belonged to a old, rich family which had ties every where. Imran was a sort of cosmopolit where as Javed from Karachi was not that educated. Moreover everything came to Imran as he wished whereas Javed had to fight for it. Imran and the Lahore Gang went to the WSC whereas Javed initially picked up for the squad didn´t get to play a single game. Javed insisted that only players who play for the local cricket should be considered which was not applicable for Imran who came from England everytime to play a Test match in Pakistan. In Javed´s point of view Imran got all the credit where as Javed could be considered as the best batsman pakistan ever produced didn´t recieve that much [/b]



.

[Murali Srinivas]

I had written about 1986 Australasia Cup being a grudge match for the Benson & Hedges cup of 1985. There was one more tournament in 1985 April at Sharjah (Asia Cup?). In the finals, the sub continent rivals clashed. It saw one of the most hostile spell of bowling from Imran when he single handedly demolished India for a platry score of 125 and his analysis read 6 for 14 in 10 overs which was a record untill Aquib Javed claimed 7 wickets in 10 overs in the same sharjah (including a hatrick) in 19991. Records apart, the spell of Imran on that day was awesome. Nobody could even play a correct shot and even the 14 runs came through edges. India only after his spell was over could breathe easily and piled up 125. But the pakistani batsmen let Imran down and with Kapil marshalling his resources well, Pak was shot out for 89 and we won by 36 runs. So the 1986 triumph (from the jaws of death) was a very sweet one for Imran.

When 1987 dawned, Imran made public his 4 desires. The first one was to beat India in India, second was to beat England at England, the third one was to beat WI in Windies and last to win the World Cup. These have never been achieved by any other Pak team. Pakistan was scheduled to tour all these three countries and participate in the World Cup of 1987 to be joint hosted by India and Pakistan.

Indian tour turned out to be a watershed in Pak cricket's history. in the First Test at Madras, Srikaa scored 123 to set up a decent Indian score. Imran who could not take part in the later part of Indian innings due to stomack upset was on trips. But when Pakistan innings began to crumble, he came out to bat. What an innings he played. He scored 135 which not only pulled Pakistan out of trouble but also effectively ended any hopes India had in mind. This man without any solid food intake stood for 4 hours and also hit 5 sixes, which showed what he is made of.

He could inspire the fellow players. During those times, the Tests and one dayers were interwined and so the first two one dayers were held after the tests. In the second test at Calcutta, Roger Binny opened up the Pak batting and captured 6 wickets. [This was the Test that Sunny opted out citing the reaction of Calcutta crowds towards him. Arun Lal who came in scored two half centuries but had to sit out in the next Test as Sunny "rightfully" reclaimed his place]. But Imran made sure that there was no hiccupps and again draw resulted.

Coming to the second one dayer at Calcutta (the first having been comfortably won by Pak), Srikka again scored 123 and when Pak started chasing, wickets began to tumble but imran found one man for the occasion. Salim Malik simply toyed with the Indian bowling and in 40 odd balls scored 70 + runs to set up an improbale win. The one dayers ended in favour of Pak with the score line reading 5-1, the only victory for India coming at the third match at Hyderabad but that could be called pyrrhic because India won on a technical point.

With the third and fourth tests meandering to draw, it boiled down to the fifth and final test at Bangalore. The curator Kasturi Rangan had prepared a pitch which turned out to be a minefield of a pitch. Imran on reading the pitch choose Iqbal Qasim and Abdul Quadir. Pak won the toss and elected to bat but Manninder spun a web around the Pak batsmen by claiming 7 wickets and Pak was bundled out for 116. India stared off well and finished the day at 72 for 2. The chances were bright for India. But Imran had a long team meeting and lot of strategies were discussed. Iqbal and Abdul Qadir as a part of the strategy went and met Bishen Singh Bedi and asked for tips Bedi gladly gave the same. his main advise was dont try anything extra. Pitch the ball in the right area and the turf will do the rest. On the next morning India overtook the Pak score and were 119 for 4 when the collapse happened and we ended up at 145, with just 29 runs lead. In the second innings, Pak batsmen fared better and they scored 249. Set 221 to win, India started disastrously losing Srikanth and Mohinder very cheaply. imran opened up with Wasim and Iqbal Qasim and his strategy started paying off. Sunny alone was waging a lone battle while wickets were falling at the other end. End of the day, we were 113 for 5 with Sunny and Azhar at the crease. The next day was rest day and the entire Pak team were working on so many plans. 5 wickets stood between Imran and his dream.

He started with Wasim on the fourth day and Azhar started with his customary wristy flicks which fetched him some runs thus by raising the hope of India. But it was not destined to be. Azhar fell and soon Shastri was gone. Sunny after battling the pitch and the bowlers finally fell for 96 which turned out to be his last outing for India, the writing was on the wall for India. Binny scored some lusty blows but Imran was not to be denied his due and we ended up at 204 falling short by 16 runs. I still remeber the glee and euphoria in Imran's face as the final wicket fell and for us who were watching it live on TV, it was a shattering blow (same emotions we had when we were watching the last ball 6, in the previous year) but here was a man who showed what leadership is and we could understand what does it mean when people say leading from the front.

Will come back later.

Regards

[littlemaster1982]

Sivan sir & Murali sir

[Movie Cop]

Imran Khan The Legend!
August 4, 2008
http://niuse.wordpress.com/2008/08/0...an-the-legend/

I will write my thoughts/memories on Imran Khan sometime later.