Cricket Career

Alongside Ian Botham, Richard Hadlee, and Kapil Dev, Imran Khan was one of the four great all-rounders of the late 20th century. He played for Pakistan from 1971 to 1992, spanning the amateur-to-professional transition in cricket and turning Pakistan into world champions.

Pakistan entered the 1992 World Cup as long shots. They lost their first two matches and scraped through the group stage on rain rules. Then something shifted. Khan gave his famous "cornered tigers" speech after a newspaper wrote Pakistan off. The team won their next five matches in a row.

The final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, in front of nearly 89,000 people, could not have been scripted better. Khan walked out with his team in trouble, played a captain's innings of 72, opened the bowling, and took the last wicket himself, caught and bowled. The image of him holding the trophy, covered in confetti, remains the most famous photograph in Pakistani sport.

• Led Pakistan in 48 Tests (Won 14, Lost 8, Drawn 26)
• Most wickets by any captain in Test cricket history
• Captained Pakistan to its only Cricket World Cup title (1992)
• First Pakistani captain to win a Test series in India (1987)
• First Pakistani captain to win a Test series in England (1987)
• Captained Oxford University cricket team (1974)