It was 25th march 1992. The venue was Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) where a man wearing lime green cricketing jersey was lifting a Waterford Crystal Trophy on dais. It was the moment when Imran Khan as cricketer achieved a landmark in the history of Pakistani Cricket.
It was the instant when he turned the dream of his nation into reality. It was the hour when cricketing fans from all over the world realized the true “Imran Khan”, the name of the same person who had crystal trophy in his arms on MCG dais.
Born in Lahore, Pakistan on 25th November 1952, Imran khan as cricketer made his cricketing debut for Lahore A (Domestic Team) in 1969 at his teens. Due to immense talent and caliber inhibited by him he was selected for Pakistani Test Cricketing Squad against England just within two years. It was the beginning of his successful cricketing career which lapsed two decades, a fact usually hard to imagine in cricketing world.
Imran Khan as Cricketer
Imran stepped in as a fast bowler when subcontinent cricket was usually dominated by spinners. In a fast bowling contest held in Perth, Australia Imran khan ranked 3rd behind Jeff Thomson and Michael Holding but ahead of other fast bowling giants like Dennis Lillie, Andy Roberts as he delivered at remarkable speed of 139.7 km/hour. His success story continued as later he secured 3000 runs and 300 wickets in just 75 tests. This all-rounder triple was clearly demonstrating him as more than a just brilliant fast bowler of that era. Even in ODI Cricket his batting average was more than 33 with best bowling figures of 6 wickets for just 14 runs only. He was performing too in overseas cricketing endeavors e.g. county cricket. He scored more than 17,000 runs and took 1287 wickets in his first class cricketing career. All of his statistics were clearly proving him as a world class genuine all-rounder of that time.
1987 marked his captaincy skills as he led Pakistan to win first ever test series against India and England respectively on their homesoils. But the fate had chosen him for something most significant. The first ever colored clothing cricket world cup with introduction of day night matches had approached in 1992. Every cricketing nation was expecting a world cup victory so does Pakistanis. Imran had his plans about it too.
Pakistani Cricket Team started a poor campaign in 1992 cricket world cup. With early defeats through West Indies, India and South Africa the team was almost on the brink of early exit. However Imran as a captain had strong self belief. With victory over Australia and undefeated New Zealand it further strengthened. At last “cornered tigers” managed to reach final world cup92 final.
The do or die was setup against invincible English cricket team on 25th march 1992.
Pakistani Cricket Team batted first and with in no time was facing test. The openers were removed by English pace attack at a meager score of 24. Then Imran Khan led from the front by promoting himself at the batting order and established a solid partnership with Javed Miandad which paved a way to furnish a fighting target of 250 for English Cricket Team. The test for Imran khan was still not over as he and his bowling attack had to defend at every cost.
Imran deployed spinner in the early phase and soon English team were crumbling at 69/4. However Allan Lamb and Neil Fairbrother reconstructed English cricket team’s innings and almost left Imran khan with no choice to play his wild card. There Imran took a very bold and crucial decision as a captain to bring something from nothing for Pakistani Cricket Team. He gave ball to Wasim Akram to deliver an early and unusual spell. The spell resulted as an exceptional one and shattered all English hopes of winning 1992 cricket world cup. In the dying hours of the match Imran Khan himself dismissed last English batsman to seal a glorious victory for Pakistan. It was the pure blend of his all around performance (both with bat & ball) and captaincy skills.
Now Imran Khan is regard as a cricketing legend worldwide. People not only followed him as a cricketing role model but also admired for inhibiting strong leadership and character. Cricket is no doubt a game of strong nerves and players like Imran khan are surely best fitted for it. The world history accounts Genghis khan as the greatest conqueror of all time. The cricketing history is also accounted with a legend. The legendary “Imran Khan”.
