Return of Imran Khan, the cricketing hero

Islamabad should heed the plea. Khan is not merely a politician but an icon whose appeal transcends the transient concerns of the political realm and speaks to generations of cricket lovers. His chequered political career or dim-witted pronouncements on many issues, including India-Pakistan relations, should not be the yardstick to judge Khan the cricketer.

Cricket made Imran Khan. And he turned a bickering bunch of players into world-beaters. Team Khan won Pakistan its only World Cup in 1992. But Imran Khan, the cricket legend, retreated into history when Imran Khan, the politician, emerged. The leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf is just another politician, and easy for the Pakistani State to manage. But it should worry about Imran Khan, the cricketing hero. An ailing Khan in prison, with his cricketing past resurrected by the legends of the game, can become a poster boy for hope in a cricket-mad country, which has been on a downward spiral, politically and economically, with a rogue field marshal manipulating both electoral democracy and diplomacy, just as insurgencies and militant groups question the authority of the State.