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Imran Khan: The Biography A voluminous biography of 373 pages attempts to capture the life and times of the iconic Pakistani all-rounder. The author has spent considerable time and effort to chronicle the political and social history of the nation and its religious framework and interweave it with Imran’s personal and cricketing life. The fact that he has succeeded in doing so is irrefutable; however, so is the lengthy and often tedious attention to detail. While one can marvel at the depth his of study of Pakistan, its religious fervour, political imbroglios, clannish ethos and completely partisan attitude towards the sport, the book serves more to capture the country’s holocaustic transition than to dwell upon Imran’s life and times.
The Khan’s career highlights have been nicely summarised in a few pages towards the end of the volume; however, the bibliography and information sources occupy a large portion of the concluding part. Perhaps the author genuinely meant to recognise the sources and give due credit to the contributors, but the avid cricket fan, interested more in the juicy details of the cricketer’s life, may well skip these pages. Christopher Sandford, in an evidently painstaking way, has brought to the fore the corrupt and partisan officialdom of Pakistan cricket and its constant detrimental effect on the players, none more so than the ‘King of Swing’. The frustrations of the ‘player-turned-captain’ and ‘captain-turned-player’ in a never-ending see saw are neatly brought out. One redeeming feature of the entire biography is the absence of possibly controversial names and details on the Pathan’s manly conquests, although several references are made to his numerous dalliances. The very few exceptions add the tinge of the necessary spice. The book is sub-divided into several well-titled chapters; still, after an initial well-connected episode or reference complementing the chapter’s title, the rest of the pages tend to meander away after a while. It is always difficult
to bring out a biography of someone who has already published his
autobiography, but this is where Sanders succeeds with a different
approach to the book. One could probably attribute this to his vast
experience in penning biographies of persons as varied as sportsmen,
actors and rock stars! On the flip side, the book could probably be
summed up thus: "For historians and chroniclers, a good read `85
for cricket buffs and Imran fans, rather a disappointment!" On
the whole, a book that could adorn your shelf at a very affordable
price!
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The
biography is replete with instances, incidents and anecdotes on the
great man’s life— cricket, personal and political, although not
necessarily in that order. While the individual achievements and
landmarks make for interesting reading, the spaces between these,
occupied by Pakistan’s history and Islamic culture, do not
contribute to their continuous or lasting recollection. A few
scattered photographs, part in black and white and the rest in colour,
attempting to capture the mood of the book, cover just eight of the
pages `85 maybe a bit more pictorial detail, especially in the same
transitory vein of monochrome to bright colours, might have lent
relief from the miles of text and reflected the pace of change in
cricket as well as in everyday life, not only in Pakistan but
elsewhere too!