Book Of The Year Award > 2010 > Imran Khan
IMRAN KHAN The Cricketer, The Celebrity, The Politician
Christopher Sandford

A long and exhaustive biography of Imran Khan, this book goes further than previous offerings, including that of Imran himself, and continues post his cricketing career to travel into the weird and wonderful world of Pakistani politics. There is enough evidence of the machinations of the various Pakistani Cricket Boards of Control to suggest that this must have given him a good grounding in the dark arts of politics.

Although followers of cricket will necessarily be more interested in the details and travails of Imran's playing career, this is a book concerned with the whole man. It does seem fair, however, to say that politics and particularly politics with an Islamic slant are a late addition to Imran's interests. The image of a playboy is a hackneyed one, although Imran seems to have done his best to live up to that description during his career in England and he has always had a keen sense of both his importance and of his destiny to excel at whatever he does. Curiously, while Imran's cricketing career could so easily have ended in failure, it, in fact, ended in the great success of Pakistan winning the ODI World Cup although his failure to mention his team, while giving the inference that the success was all in honour of his life's work, the cancer hospital dedicated to his mother, did not endear him to the other players. His political career, which one would have thought was there for the taking seems never to have really got off the ground. It began with his party winning no seats in an election, continued with election as an MP and subsequent resignation in protest and currently sees him as a voice in the wilderness. Perhaps he is playing the long game and a book in ten years will see him vindicated. At the moment, his personal popularity is massive (although regional, like all Pakistani politicians) but seemingly unable to be translated into votes or power.

As might be expected from an experienced cricket writer, Christopher Sandford is very strong on Imran's cricketing career at Test and county level. It is well researched and refreshingly free from partisanship. Where Imran is in the wrong, or not wholly right, the book follows the story and shows all sides. It is slightly evasive on ball-tampering, the fact that cricketers have lifted the seam for years, comes under the heading of two wrongs not making a right and excursions with a bottle-top can't really be excused. There seems no doubt that Imran Khan was fortunate, or extremely smart, in the presentation of his image during his career. Whereas Javed Miandad didn't much care what people thought of him and was viewed accordingly, Imran took some care to make sure that any of his pronouncements that were for public consumption were always slanted towards a patrician view of benefit to cricket and its players.

The latter stages of the book are more difficult, as politics in Pakistan are very complex and most of the sources, both personal and media, have an axe, or a Kalashnikov, to grind. The Pakistani press, in particular seems to have an elastic view of the truth and the more ludicrous the accusation, the more likely it is to get front-page coverage. What does seem to be ironic is that Imran is viewed as a serious politician with something to say because of his illustrious cricket career and while that does not mean he is not a serious man with a serious message, it must be concerning that he cannot leave the cricket behind and be a successful politician.

This is a well-crafted book about an important man who embodies many of the contradictions that must inevitably come for a man who has lived and travelled extensively in two contrasting cultures. Imran Khan could never be an ascetic but that does not mean he cannot be someone who can be a success at two different trades. Christopher Sandford's book takes us further into the life and mind of Imran Khan than would have been believed possible and he has managed to ally a fine sports book with another very different and as yet, unfinished story.

review by John Symons

Publisher
HarperCollins,
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
LONDON
W6 8JB
£20