Imran Khan

Imran Khan is the rare cricketer to captain a team to a World Cup title and later become head of a government: he led Pakistan to its only Cricket World Cup win in 1992, achieved the rare all-rounder's triple of 3,000 Test runs and 300 Test wickets, and went on to serve as Pakistan's prime minister from 2018 to 2022 — a second career that, as of 2026, has left him serving lengthy prison sentences on charges he says are politically motivated.

From tearaway to complete all-rounder

Khan, an Oxford-educated fast bowler, made his Test debut against England in 1971 at 18, was written off by senior players after an unimpressive start, and took a break from the game before returning in 1974 to become one of the fastest bowlers in the world through the late 1970s and early 1980s. He captained Pakistan from 1982 to 1992, transforming a talented but underachieving side into Test series winners in India and England — both for the first time in Pakistan's history — and still holds the world record for most wickets taken by a Test captain. As captain he also pushed hard for the use of neutral umpires in international cricket, a reform the game formally adopted only years later and now takes for granted.

1992, and the cornered tigers

Khan's defining moment came in the 1992 World Cup final at the MCG. After Pakistan's campaign nearly collapsed following an early defeat to South Africa, Khan told his players they "had to play as if they were cornered tigers." He top-scored with 72 in the final, brought Wasim Akram back into the attack at the decisive moment to remove Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis, and claimed the last wicket himself as Pakistan won its first and only World Cup. He retired from all cricket immediately afterwards.

Numbers that define a great all-rounder

Across 88 Tests, Khan scored 3,807 runs at 37.69 with six centuries and took 362 wickets at 22.81, with 23 five-wicket hauls — one of only a handful of players in history to combine 3,000 Test runs with 300 Test wickets. He remains, by some distance, the most successful fast-bowling all-rounder Pakistan has produced, and was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2009.

Shaukat Khanum, and a second calling

In 1994, Khan founded Pakistan's first cancer hospital, the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, named after his mother, who had died of the disease; he raised the funds through a nationwide public appeal, and the hospital still treats most of its patients free of charge. Two years later he founded the political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, which he chaired until 2023. Away from cricket and politics, he served as chancellor of the University of Bradford from 2005 to 2014, and married three times — to Jemima Goldsmith (1995-2004), Reham Khan (2015), and Bushra Bibi, his wife since 2018.

Prime minister, and prison

Khan was elected Pakistan's prime minister in 2018 and removed from office by a no-confidence vote in April 2022 — the first Pakistani prime minister ever ousted that way. He was arrested in August 2023 and, as of 2026, remains in prison: in January 2025 he was sentenced to 14 years in the Al-Qadir Trust case, and in December 2025 to a further 17 years in a separate case over undeclared state gifts. He denies wrongdoing and says the charges are politically motivated; his supporters and some international observers have disputed the fairness of the proceedings, and he has twice been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, most recently in 2025. For his full playing statistics, see his player profile; fellow great all-rounders Garfield Sobers and Kapil Dev are also among our cricketing legends.