Wednesday, December 15, 2010

One Of My Favorite Cricketers: Imran Khan

 Imran Khan is easily one of the five greatest cricketers of all-time. Imran Khan could do almost everything that is part and parcel of the game of cricket. He dogged headlines with his feats as bowler. He chipped in with his bat and contributed significantly with the bat whenever his team needed him as a batsman. He authored many Pakistan wins with his shrewd leadership skills. There have been very few cricketers throughout the history of the game who have been good at almost every department of the game. In that regard he can be compared to Gary Sobers for being the best all round cricketer of all time.

The difference between Gary Sobers and Imran Khan is that Gary Sobers was great batsman who could contribute significantly with his bowling. Imran Khan was a great bowler who could contribute significantly with the bat. Both of them were great fielder. Imran Khan of course is more popular as a great leader than Gary Sobers. In that sense, if Gary Sobers is hailed as the greatest cricketer ever, Imran Khan too is not far behind for being the greatest cricketer of all time. At the worst, he is one of the five greatest cricketers of all time.

People looked up to Imran Khan with hope. They know he was capable of anything of a cricketing field. He won many one day tournaments for Pakistan. He led Pakistan to away test triumphs in Australia, England, and West Indies. These would put him alongside the other greats of his time. But he had some distinct achievements to his career. He successfully drew two test series against the might West Indian team. He in fact came close to winning the series against West Indies in West Indies. If not for the decision that went against him when Vivian Richards was struck plumb in front the wickets, Pakistan would have won the series against West Indies in West Indies. Gary sobers perhaps did not face such fierce competition as Imran did and excelled. The West Indies team that Imran Khan drew two test series with, and came close to winning the series was perhaps the best team of all time, and no other team fared better than Imran Khan's Pakistan against that might West Indies. A big chunk of credit goes to Imran Khan. That performance against West Indies was perhaps the crown in Imran Khan's illustrious test career.

If the performance in test series against the mighty West Indies was a crown in his test career, he crowned his illustrious one day career with the highest one day prize, World cup in 1992. He rounded off his illustrious career with the prestigious World cup in 1992. Pakistan came close to winning the world cup in the year 1987 before they eventually lost marginally in the semi final against Australia. Then to come back in 1992 at the age of 39, and actually win the cup was phenomenal.

Imran missed two years in cricket due to injury when he was at the peak of his career. Otherwise his cricketing statistics would have been even better. But Imran was that sort of few cricketers who never played for records and statistics. He is an all rounder off the field as well. He was the hearthrob of the entire cricketing world.

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