Imran's Googly

The Pakistan prime minister caught India off-guard by seizing the initiative on Kartarpur. Team Modi needs to step up the game now to prevent India from appearing as the intransigent party in the eyes of the world.

- Raj Chengappa

AS A CRICKETER, IMRAN KHAN WAS LAUDED FOR HIS FEARLESSNESS. WHAT MADE HIM ONE OF THE GREATEST ALL-ROUNDERS OF THE GAME WAS NOT JUST HIS ABILITY TO TAKE BIG RISKS BUT ALSO, AS CAPTAIN OF THE PAKISTAN TEAM, PULL OFF IMPOSSIBLE VICTORIES. AT THE 1992 WORLD CUP, HIS TEAM WAS THE UNDERDOG AND SUFFERED THE IGNOMINY OF LOSING TO INDIA IN ONE OF THE EARLY MATCHES. BUT DESPITE A SHOULDER INJURY, IMRAN CAME ROARING BACK AND LED HIS TEAM TO A FAMOUS VICTORY, THE FIRST AND ONLY TIME THAT PAKISTAN LIFTED THE WORLD CUP. THE MORAL OF THE STORY: NEVER UNDERESTIMATE IMRAN KHAN.

Those who have done so have paid a heavy price. Nawaz Sharif in his third term as prime minister of Pakistan did that as did Asif Ali Zardari when he was president of Pakistan. They treated the poster boy of Pakistan cricket as a playboy philanthropist with an oversized ego, and dismissed him as a fringe player in Pakistan’s turbulent politics. Now, the two most important families in Pakistan—the Sharifs and the Bhuttos—find themselves in the political wilderness facing serious corruption charges, while Imran occupies the sprawling prime minister’s office-cum-residence on Constitution Avenue in Islamabad.