Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases. They occasionally have a resourceful character struggling against incredible odds such as, life-threatening situations, an evil villain, and/or being chased in several ways of transportation (car, bus, truck, etc), with victory achieved at the end after difficult physical efforts and violence. Story and character development are generally secondary to explosions, fist fights, gunplay and car chases.

While action films have traditionally been a reliable source of revenue for movie studios, relatively few action films garner critical praise. Although action films have traditionally been aimed at male audiences from the early teens to the mid-30s, many action filmmakers from the 1990s and 2000s added female heroines in response to the expanding social conceptions of gender, glorifying the strong female archetype.

Hollywood has been making more action films than ever, mainly because the advancement in CGI have made it cheaper and easier to create action sequences and other visual effects that required professional stunt crews and dangerous staging in the past. However, action audiences' expectations have been mixed with the high level of computer generated imagery, and films where computer animation is not believable are often met with criticism.

While action has long been an element of films, the "action film" genre began to develop in the 1970s. The genre is closely linked with the thriller and adventure film genres, and it may sometimes have elements of spy fiction and espionage.

History

Early action films

During the 1920s and 1930s, action-based films were often "swashbuckling" adventure films in which Douglas Fairbanks wielded swords in period pieces or Westerns.

The 1940s and 1950s saw "action" in the form of war and cowboy movies. Alfred Hitchcock almost single-handedly ushered in the spy-adventure genre, also firmly establishing the use of action-oriented "set pieces" like the famous crop-duster scene and the Mount Rushmore finale in "North by Northwest". That film, along with a war-adventure called "The Guns of Navaronne" directly inspired producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman to invest in their own spy-adventure based on the novels of Ian Fleming.

The long-running success of the James Bond series (which easily dominated the 1960s) essentially introduced all the staples of the modern-day action film. The "Bond movies" were characterized by larger-than-life characters, such as the resourceful hero: a veritable "one-man army" who was able to dispatch villainous masterminds (and their disposable "henchmen") in ever-more creative ways, often followed by a ready one-liner. The Bond films also utilized quick cutting, car chases, fist fights, a variety of weapons and "gadgets", and ever more elaborate action sequences.

1970s

In the 1970s, Bond saw competition as gritty detective stories and urban crime dramas began to fuse themselves with the new "action" style, leading to a string of maverick police officer films, such as those defined by ''Bullitt'' (1968), ''The French Connection'' (1971) and ''Dirty Harry'' (1971); all of which featured an intense car chase inspired by the popular stuntwork of the Bond films. Dirty Harry essentially lifted its star Clint Eastwood out of his cowboy typecasting, and became the urban-action film's first true archetype. Proving that the modern world offered just as much glamour, excitement, and potential for violence as the old west, Dirty Harry signaled the end of the prolific "cowboys and Indians" era of film westerns. The cross-pollenization of genres (such as spy-films and war movies, or westerns and detective dramas) would become the norm in the 1980s. It should also be noted however, that the 1970s saw the introduction of martial-arts film to western audiences. Also inspired by the success of James Bond; specifically the Asian-influenced "You Only Live Twice", martial-arts-themed action movies exploded onto the western cinema screens with Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon" (1973), and his imported films like "Way of (or Return of) the Dragon" (1972). The latter also introduced action fans to then-rising star Chuck Norris as well. Though Jackie Chan's Rush Hour is often credited as popularizing the martial arts action film in the United States, the truth is Chuck Norris had been blending kung fu cops and robbers since "Good Guys Wear Black" (1977) and "A Force of One" (1979).

1980s

The 1980s would see the action film take over Hollywood to become a dominant form of summer blockbuster; literally "the action era" popularized by actors such as Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and Chuck Norris. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas even paid their homage to the Bond-inspired style with the mega-hit ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' (1981). In 1982, veteran actor Nick Nolte and rising comedian Eddie Murphy smashed box office records with the action-comedy ''48 Hrs'', which is credited as the first "buddy-cop" movie. That same year, Sylvester Stallone starred in First Blood, the first installment in the popular Rambo film series. The film proved to be successful and was followed with a sequel in 1985, Rambo: First Blood Part II which became the most successful film in the series and made the character ''Rambo'' a pop cultural icon. Later ''Lethal Weapon'' (1987), proved that low-budget action plots (like a maverick cop with martial arts skills fighting drug traffickers), given the "Hollywood A-list" treatment (bigger budgets, more talented casts, etc.) could prove to be financial windfalls for the studios. The 1988 film ''Die Hard'' was particularly influential on the development of the action genre. In the film, Bruce Willis plays a New York police detective who inadvertently becomes embroiled in a terrorist take-over of a Los Angeles office building high-rise. The film set a pattern for a host of imitators, like ''Under Siege'' (1992) or ''Air Force One'' (1997), which used the same formula in a different setting. By the end of the 1980s, the influence of the successful action film could be felt in almost every genre- hybrids were becoming the norm; war-action hybrids (like "First Blood" and "Missing in Action"), science fiction action (like "Terminator", and "RoboCop"), horror-action (like "Aliens" and "Predator"), and even the occasional musical-action-comedy hybrid (like "The Blues Brothers").

1990s

The 1990s was an era of sequels and hybrid action. Like the western genre, the spy-movies and urban-action films were starting to parody themselves, and with the growing revolution in CGI (computer generated imagery), the "real-world" settings began to give way to increasingly fantastic environments. This new era of action films often had budgets unlike any in the history of motion pictures. The success of the many Dirty Harry and James Bond sequels had proven that a single successful action film could lead to a continuing action franchise. Thus the 1980s and 1990s saw a rise in both budgets and the number of sequels a film could generally have. Where in earlier decades, sequels were frowned upon by most filmmakers and filmgoers alike, the 1980s saw a serious effort on the part of studios and their stars to not only attempt to capture the magic one more time, but to continually top what had come before. This basic drive led to an increasing desire on the part of many filmmakers to create new technologies that would allow them to beat the competition by taking audiences to new heights of roller-coaster-like fantasy. The success of Tim Burton's "Batman" (1989) led to a string of financially successful sequels, and within a single decade, had proven the viability of a new sub-genre of action film; the comic-book movie.

Hong Kong action cinema

At present, action films requiring big budget stunt work and special effects tend to be expensive. As such, they are regarded as mostly a large-studio genre in Hollywood, although this is not the case in Hong Kong action cinema, where action films are often modern variations of martial arts films. Because of these roots and their lower budgets, Hong Kong action films typically center on physical acrobatics, martial arts fight scenes, stylized gun-play, and dangerous stunt work performed by leading stunt actors, while American action films typically feature big explosions, car chases, stunt work (usually with stunt doubles), and (more recently) CGI special effects technology.

Hong Kong action cinema was at its peak from the 1970s to 1990s, when its action movies were experimenting with and popularizing various new techniques that would eventually be adopted by Hollywood action movies. This began in the early 1970s with the martial arts movies of Bruce Lee, which led to a wave of Bruceploitation movies that eventually gave way to the comedy kung fu films of Jackie Chan by the end of the decade. During the 1980s, Hong Kong action cinema had re-invented itself with various new kinds of movies. These included the modern martial arts action movies, featuring physical acrobatics and dangerous stunt work, of Jackie Chan and his stunt team as well as Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao; the wire fu and wuxia films of Tsui Hark, Yuen Woo-Ping, Jet Li and Donnie Yen; the gun fu, heroic bloodshed and Triad films of John Woo, Ringo Lam and Chow Yun-Fat; and the girls with guns films of Moon Lee and Michelle Yeoh.

Most recently, due to the better availability of CGI technology at a lower price, action cinema outside of Hollywood has been able to provide viewers with a growing degree of big budget spectacle which was once only available from American studio releases (''Blood the Last Vampire'' (Japan), ''The Host'' (South Korea), ''Red Cliff'' (China), etc.). While the action movie genre continues to evolve over time, they remain a staple of motion pictures. However, with many leading Hong Kong figures leaving for Hollywood, the local Hong Kong action film industry has been in a relative decline. As a result, more recent Hong Kong action films have tended to be more storyline-driven, including popular films such as ''Infernal Affairs'', ''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'', ''Hero'', and ''Ip Man''.

Current trends

Current trends in action film include a development toward more elaborate fight scenes in Western film. This trend is influenced by the massive success of Hong Kong action cinema, both in Asia and in the west. Asian martial arts elements, such as kung-fu can now be found in numerous non-Asian action films. Many credit Jackie Chan's Rush Hour to have been the first film to really get North Americans to enjoy the martial arts/comedy which has now appeared in numerous films. Now, a distinction can be made between films that lean toward physical, agile fighting, such as ''Blade'' and ''The Matrix'', and those that lean toward other common action film conventions, like explosions and plenty of gunfire, such as ''Mission: Impossible III'', although most action movies employ elements of both.

Sub-genres

Action Comedy - A sub-genre involving action and humor. The sub-genre became a popular trend in the 1980s when actors who were known for their background in comedy such as Eddie Murphy, began to take roles in action films. The action scenes within the genre are generally lighthearted and rarely involve death or serious injury. Comedy films such as ''Dumb & Dumber'' and ''Big Momma's House'' that contain action-laden sub-plots are not considered part of the genre as the action scenes have a more integral role in action comedies. Examples of action comedies include ''The Blues Brothers'' (1980), ''48 Hrs.'' (1982), ''Beverly Hills Cop'' (1984), ''Midnight Run'' (1988), ''Bad Boys'' (1995), Beverly Hills Ninja'' (1997), ''Rush Hour'' (1998), ''Charlie's Angels'' (2000).

''Die-Hard'' scenario - Which the story takes place in limited location; a single building, plane, or vessel - which is seized or under threat by enemy agents, but are opposed by a single hero who fights an extended battle within the location using stealth and cunning to attempt to defeat them. This sub-genre began with the film ''Die Hard'' and has become popular in Hollywood because of its crowd appeal and the relative simplicity of building sets for such a constrained piece. These films are sometimes described as "''Die Hard'' on a...". Among the many films that have copied this formula are ''Under Siege'' (terrorists take over a ship), ''Snakes on a Plane'' (poisonous snakes take over a passenger plane), ''Speed'' (''Die Hard'' on a bus), ''Under Siege 2: Dark Territory'' and ''Derailed'' (hostages are trapped on a train), ''Sudden Death'' (terrorists take over an Ice Hockey stadium), ''Passenger 57'', ''Executive Decision'' and ''Air Force One'' (hostages are trapped on a plane), ''Con Air'' (criminals take over a transport plane), and ''Half Past Dead'' and ''The Rock'' (criminals or terrorists take over a prison). ''Paul Blart: Mall Cop'' is a recent spoof of this trend (as ''Die Hard'' in a mall).

Disaster Film - Having elements of thriller and sometimes science fiction films, the main conflict of this genre is some sort of natural or artificial disaster, such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, etc, or nuclear disasters that are shown with heavy action scenes, special effects, over the top destruction and, in modern day, use of CGI. Examples include ''Independence Day'', ''Daylight'', ''Earthquake'', ''2012'', ''The Day After Tomorrow'', ''Poseidon'', ''The Towering Inferno'', ''Dante's Peak'', ''Deep Impact'', ''Volcano'', ''The Core'', ''Armageddon'' and ''Twister''.

Martial Arts - A sub-genre of the action film, martial arts films contain numerous fights between characters, usually as the films' primary appeal and entertainment value, and often as a method of storytelling and character expression and development. Martial arts films contain many characters who are martial artists, and these roles are often played by actors who are real martial artists. If not, actors frequently train in preparation for their roles, or the action director may rely more on stylized action or filmmaking tricks. Martial films include ''The Karate Kid'', ''Kung Fu Hustle'', ''Fearless'', ''Ninja Assassin'', ''Ong-Bak'', ''Shanghai Noon'', ''Kill Bill'', ''Fist of Legend'', ''Iron Monkey'', ''Drunken Master'' and ''Enter the Dragon''.

Sci-fi Action - Sharing many of the conventions of a science fiction film, sci-fi action films emphasizes gunplay, space battles, invented weaponry, and other sci-fi elements weaved into action film premises. Examples include ''Terminator 2'', ''The Matrix'', ''Total Recall'', ''Minority Report'', ''The Island'', ''Star Trek'', ''Aliens'', ''I, Robot'', ''Transformers'', ''Equilibrium'', ''District 9'', ''Serenity'', ''Akira'', ''Paycheck'', ''Predator'', ''Robocop'', ''Avatar'', ''Mad Max 2'' and ''The Fifth Element''.

Notable individuals

Actors

Actors from the 1950s and 1960s such as John Wayne, Steve McQueen and Lee Marvin passed the torch in the 1970s to actors such as martial artist Bruce Lee, Tom Laughlin, Charles Bronson, Chuck Norris, and Clint Eastwood. In the 1980s, Mel Gibson and Danny Glover had a popular string of "buddy cop" films in the ''Lethal Weapon'' franchise. Beginning in the mid-1980s, actors such as the burly ex-bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone wielded automatic weapons in a number of action films. Stern-faced martial artist Steven Seagal made a number of films. Bruce Willis played a Western-inspired hero in the popular ''Die Hard'' series of action films.

In the 1990s and 2000s, Asian actors Chow Yun-fat, Jet Li, and Jackie Chan appeared in a number of different types of action films, and US actor Wesley Snipes had many roles. As well, several female actors had major roles in action films, such as Michelle Yeoh, Lucy Liu and ex-model Milla Jovovich. While Keanu Reeves and Harrison Ford both had major roles in action science fiction films (''The Matrix'' and ''Blade Runner'', respectively), Ford branched out into a number of other action genres, such as action-adventure films.

European action actors such as Belgian-born Jean-Claude Van Damme (''Timecop'', ''Universal Soldier''), French-born Jean Reno (''The Professional''), Swedish-born Dolph Lundgren (''Showdown in Little Tokyo'', ''Universal Soldier'', ''The Expendables'') and English-born Jason Statham (''The Transporter'', ''The Expendables'', ''Crank''), appeared in a number of 1990s and 2000s-era action films. US actor Matt Damon, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his sensitive portrayal of a math genius working as a janitor in ''Good Will Hunting'', metamorphosed into an action hero with the car-chase and gunfire-filled Jason Bourne franchise. For a longer list of action film actors, see the List of action film actors article.

Directors

Notable action film directors from the 1960s and 1970s include Sam Peckinpah, whose 1969 Western ''The Wild Bunch'' was controversial for its bloody violence and nihilist tone. Some of the influential and popular directors from the 1980s to 2000s include James Cameron (the first two ''Terminator'' films, ''Aliens'', ''True Lies''); John Woo (Hong Kong action films such as ''Hard Boiled'' and US-made English-language films such as ''Hard Target'' and ''Mission: Impossible II''); John McTiernan (''Die Hard'', ''Predator''); Ridley Scott (''Black Hawk Down''); The Wachowski Brothers (the science fiction ''The Matrix'' trilogy) and Michael Bay (''Bad Boys 2'', ''Transformers''). For a longer list, see the List of action film directors article.

Producers

Avi Lerner

Boaz Davidson

Bob Weinstein

Don Simpson

Harvey Weinstein

Jerry Bruckheimer

Jerry Weintraub

Joel Silver

Menahem Golan

Yoram Globus

The Wachowski Brothers

See also

Hong Kong action cinema

List of action heroes

List of action films

List of movie genres

List of women warriors in literature and popular culture

List of genres

Sources

Inness, Sherrie A. (ed.) ''Action Chicks: New Images of Tough Women in Popular Culture'', Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

Kim, L. S. "Making women warriors: a transnational reading of Asian female action heroes in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." ''Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media.'' No. 48, Winter, 2006.

Osgerby, Bill, Anna Gough-Yates, and Marianne Wells. ''Action TV : Tough-Guys, Smooth Operators and Foxy Chicks.'' London: Routledge, 2001.

———.''Spectacular Bodies : Gender, Genre, and the Action Cinema''. London and New York: Routledge, 1993.

Tasker, Yvonne. ''Action and Adventure Cinema.'' New York: Routledge, 2004.

References

External links

IMDB Top Rated Action Titles

Category:Action films Film Category:Film genres

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Coordinates	37°46′45.48″N122°25′9.12″N
name	Imran Khan Niazi
birth date	November 25, 1952
birth place	Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
party	Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf
spouse	Jemima Khan (1995 - 2004)
children	2 (Sulaiman Isa and Kasim)
residence	Lahore
occupation	Politician, philanthropist
religion	Islam
website	http://www.insaf.pk/ }}

playername	Imran Khan
country	Pakistan
fullname	Imran Khan Niazi
living	true
dayofbirth	25
monthofbirth	11
yearofbirth	1952
placeofbirth	Lahore, Punjab
countryofbirth	Pakistan
batting	Right-handed
bowling	Right-arm fast
role	All-rounder
international	true
testdebutdate	3 June
testdebutyear	1971
testdebutagainst	England
testcap	65
lasttestdate	7 January
lasttestyear	1992
lasttestagainst	Sri Lanka
odidebutdate	31 August
odidebutyear	1974
odidebutagainst	England
odicap	12
lastodidate	25 March
lastodiyear	1992
lastodiagainst	England
club1	Sussex
year1	1977 – 1988
club2	New South Wales
year2	1984/85
club3	PIA
year3	1975 – 1981
club4	Worcestershire
year4	1971 – 1976
club5	Oxford University
year5	1973 – 1975
club6	Lahore
year6	1969 – 1971
columns	4
column1	Test
matches1	88
runs1	3807
bat avg1	37.69
100s/50s1	6/18
top score1	136
deliveries1	19458
wickets1	362
bowl avg1	22.81
fivefor1	23
tenfor1	6
best bowling1	8/58
catches/stumpings1	28/–
column2	ODI
matches2	175
runs2	3709
bat avg2	33.41
100s/50s2	1/19
top score2	102*
deliveries2	7461
wickets2	182
bowl avg2	26.61
fivefor2	1
tenfor2	n/a
best bowling2	6/14
catches/stumpings2	36/–
column3	FC
matches3	382
runs3	17771
bat avg3	36.79
100s/50s3	30/93
top score3	170
deliveries3	65224
wickets3	1287
bowl avg3	22.32
fivefor3	70
tenfor3	13
best bowling3	8/34
catches/stumpings3	117/–
column4	LA
matches4	425
runs4	10100
bat avg4	33.22
100s/50s4	5/66
top score4	114*
deliveries4	19122
wickets4	507
bowl avg4	22.31
fivefor4	6
tenfor4	n/a
best bowling4	6/14
catches/stumpings4	84/–
date	26 June
year	2008
source	http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/1/1383/1383.html CricketArchive }}

Imran Khan Niazi (Punjabi, Pashto, }}) (born 25 November 1952) is a Pakistani politician and former Pakistani cricketer, playing international cricket for two decades in the late twentieth century and being a politician since the mid-1990s. Currently, besides his political activism, Khan is also a philanthropist, cricket commentator and Chancellor of the University of Bradford.

Khan played for the Pakistani cricket team from 1971 to 1992 and served as its captain intermittently throughout 1982-1992. After retiring from cricket at the end of the 1987 World Cup, he was called back to join the team in 1988. At 39, Khan led his teammates to Pakistan's first and only World Cup victory in 1992. He has a record of 3807 runs and 362 wickets in Test cricket, making him one of eight world cricketers to have achieved an 'All-rounder's Triple' in Test matches. On 14 July 2010, Khan was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.

In April 1996, Khan founded and became the chairman of a political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice). He represented Mianwali as a member of the National Assembly from November 2002 to October 2007. Khan, through worldwide fundraising, helped establish the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre in 1996 and Mianwali's Namal College in 2008.

Family, education, and personal life

Imran Khan was born to Shaukat Khanum (Burki) and Ikramullah Khan Niazi, a civil engineer, in Lahore. A quiet and shy boy in his youth, Khan grew up in a middle-class Niazi Pathan family with four sisters. Settled in Punjab, Khan's father descended from the Pashtun (Pathan) Niazi Shermankhel tribe of Mianwali in Punjab. Imran's Mother Shaukat Khanum (Burki's) family includes successful hockey players and cricketers such as Javed Burki and Majid Khan. Khan was educated at Aitchison College, the Cathedral School in Lahore, and the Royal Grammar School Worcester in England, where he excelled at cricket. In 1972, he enrolled to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Keble College, Oxford, where he graduated with a second-class degree in Politics and a third in Economics.

Marriage to Jemima Marcelle Goldsmith

On 16 May 1995, Khan married English socialite Jemima Goldsmith, a convert to Islam, in an Islamic ceremony in Paris. A month later, on 21 June, they were married again in a civil ceremony at the Richmond register office in England, followed by a reception at the Goldsmiths' house in Surrey. The marriage, described as "tough" by Khan, produced two sons, Sulaiman Isa (born 18 November 1996) and Kasim (born 10 April 1999). As an agreement of his marriage, Khan spent four months a year in England. On 22 June 2004, it was announced that the Khans had divorced because it was "difficult for Jemima to adapt to life in Pakistan" .The marriage ended amicably. Imran has regular access to his children and his relationship with his ex-wife is friendly. Khan now resides in Bani Gala, Islamabad, where he built a farmhouse with the money he gained from selling his London flat. He grows fruit trees, wheat, and keeps cows, while also maintaining a cricket ground for his two sons, who visit during their holidays.

Cricket career

Khan made a lacklustre first-class cricket debut at the age of sixteen in Lahore. By the start of the 1970s, he was playing for his home teams of Lahore A (1969–70), Lahore B (1969–70), Lahore Greens (1970–71) and, eventually, Lahore (1970–71). Khan was part of Oxford University's Blues Cricket team during the 1973-75 seasons. At Worcestershire, where he played county cricket from 1971 to 1976, he was regarded as only an average medium pace bowler. During this decade, other teams represented by Khan include Dawood Industries (1975–76) and Pakistan International Airlines (1975–76 to 1980-81). From 1983 to 1988, he played for Sussex.

In 1971, Khan made his Test cricket debut against England at Birmingham. Three years later, he debuted in the One Day International (ODI) match, once again playing against England at Nottingham for the Prudential Trophy. After graduating from Oxford and finishing his tenure at Worcestershire, he returned to Pakistan in 1976 and secured a permanent place on his native national team starting from the 1976-77 season, during which they faced New Zealand and Australia. Following the Australian series, he toured the West Indies, where he met Tony Greig, who signed him up for Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket. His credentials as one of the fastest bowlers of the world started to establish when he finished third at 139.7 km/h in a fast bowling contest at Perth in 1978, behind Jeff Thomson and Michael Holding, but ahead of Dennis Lillee, Garth Le Roux and Andy Roberts.

As a fast bowler, Khan reached the peak of his powers in 1982. In 9 Tests, he got 62 wickets at 13.29 each, the lowest average of any bowler in Test history with at least 50 wickets in a calendar year. In January 1983, playing against India, he attained a Test bowling rating of 922 points. Although calculated retrospectively (ICC player ratings did not exist at the time), Khan's form and performance during this period ranks third in the ICC's All-Time Test Bowling Rankings.

Khan achieved the all-rounder's triple (securing 3000 runs and 300 wickets) in 75 Tests, the second fastest record behind Ian Botham's 72. He is also established as having the second highest all-time batting average of 61.86 for a Test batsman playing at position 6 of the batting order. He played his last Test match for Pakistan in January 1992, against Sri Lanka at Faisalabad. Khan retired permanently from cricket six months after his last ODI, the historic 1992 World Cup final against England at Melbourne, Australia. He ended his career with 88 Test matches, 126 innings and scored 3807 runs at an average of 37.69, including six centuries and 18 fifties. His highest score was 136 runs. As a bowler, he took 362 wickets in Test cricket, which made him the first Pakistani and world's fourth bowler to do so. In ODIs, he played 175 matches and scored 3709 runs at an average of 33.41. His highest score remains 102 not out. His best ODI bowling is documented at 6 wickets for 14 runs.

Captaincy

At the height of his career, in 1982, the thirty-year old Khan took over the captaincy of the Pakistani cricket team from Javed Miandad. Recalling his initial discomfort with this new role, he later said, "When I became the cricket captain, I couldn’t speak to the team directly I was so shy. I had to tell the manager, I said listen can you talk to them, this is what I want to convey to the team. I mean early team meetings I use to be so shy and embarrassed I couldn’t talk to the team." As a captain, Khan played 48 Test matches, out of which 14 were won by Pakistan, 8 lost and the rest of 26 were drawn. He also played 139 ODIs, winning 77, losing 57 and ending one in a tie.

In the team's second match under his leadership, Khan led them to their first Test win on English soil for 28 years at Lord's. Khan's first year as captain was the peak of his legacy as a fast bowler as well as an all-rounder. He recorded the best Test bowling of his career while taking 8 wickets for 58 runs against Sri Lanka at Lahore in 1981-82. He also topped both the bowling and batting averages against England in three Test series in 1982, taking 21 wickets and averaging 56 with the bat. Later the same year, he put up a highly acknowledged performance in a home series against the formidable Indian team by taking 40 wickets in six Tests at an average of 13.95. By the end of this series in 1982-83, Khan had taken 88 wickets in 13 Test matches over a period of one year as captain.

This same Test series against India, however, also resulted in a stress fracture in his shin that kept him out of cricket for more than two years. An experimental treatment funded by the Pakistani government helped him recover by the end of 1984 and he made a successful comeback to international cricket in the latter part of the 1984-85 season.

In 1987, Khan led Pakistan to its first ever Test series win in India, which was followed by Pakistan's first series victory in England the same year. During the 1980s, his team also recorded three creditable draws against the West Indies. India and Pakistan co-hosted the 1987 World Cup, but neither ventured beyond the semi-finals. Khan retired from international cricket at the end of the World Cup. In 1988, he was asked to return to the captaincy by the President Of Pakistan, General Zia-Ul-Haq, and on 18 January, he announced his decision to rejoin the team. Soon after returning to the captaincy, Khan led Pakistan to another winning tour in the West Indies, which he has recounted as "the last time I really bowled well". He was declared Man of the Series against West Indies in 1988 when he took 23 wickets in 3 tests.

Khan's career-high as a captain and cricketer came when he led Pakistan to victory in the 1992 Cricket World Cup. Playing with a brittle batting line-up, Khan promoted himself as a batsman to play in the top order along with Javed Miandad, but his contribution as a bowler was minimal. At the age of 39, Khan scored the highest runs of all the Pakistani batsmen and took the winning last wicket himself.

Post-retirement

In 1994, Khan had admitted that, during Test matches, he "occasionally scratched the side of the ball and lifted the seam." He had also added, "Only once did I use an object. When Sussex were playing Hampshire in 1981 the ball was not deviating at all. I got the 12th man to bring out a bottle top and it started to move around a lot." In 1996, Khan successfully defended himself in a libel action brought forth by former English captain and all-rounder Ian Botham and batsman Allan Lamb over comments they alleged were made by Khan in two articles about the above-mentioned ball-tampering and another article published in an Indian magazine, ''India Today''. They claimed that, in the latter publication, Khan had called the two cricketers "racist, ill-educated and lacking in class." Khan protested that he had been misquoted, saying that he was defending himself after having admitted that he tampered with a ball in a county match 18 years ago. Khan won the libel case, which the judge labelled a "complete exercise in futility", with a 10-2 majority decision by the jury.

Since retiring, Khan has written opinion pieces on cricket for various British and Asian newspapers, especially regarding the Pakistani national team. His contributions have been published in India's ''Outlook'' magazine, the ''Guardian'', the ''Independent'', and the ''Telegraph''. Khan also sometimes appears as a cricket commentator on Asian and British sports networks, including BBC Urdu and the Star TV network. In 2004, when the Indian cricket team toured Pakistan after 14 years, he was a commentator on TEN Sports' special live show, Straight Drive, while he was also a columnist for sify.com for the 2005 India-Pakistan Test series. He has provided analysis for every cricket World Cup since 1992, which includes providing match summaries for BBC during the 1999 World Cup.

In November 2009 Khan underwent emergency surgery at Lahore's Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital to remove an obstruction in his small intestine.

Social work

For more than four years after retiring from cricket in 1992, Khan focused his efforts solely on social work. By 1991, he had founded the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust, a charity organisation bearing the name of his mother, Mrs. Shaukat Khanum. As the Trust's maiden endeavour, Khan established Pakistan's first and only cancer hospital, constructed using donations and funds exceeding $25 million, raised by Khan from all over the world. Inspired by the memory of his mother, who died of cancer, the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre, a charitable cancer hospital with 75 percent free care, opened in Lahore on 29 December 1994. Khan currently serves as the chairman of the hospital and continues to raise funds through charity and public donations. Princess of Wales Lady Diana also visited Lahore in 1996 in order to raise funds for the Cancer hospital.

During the 1990s, Khan also served as UNICEF's Special Representative for Sports and promoted health and immunisation programmes in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

On 27 April 2008, Khan's brainchild, a technical college in the Mianwali District called Namal College, was inaugurated. Namal College was built by the Mianwali Development Trust (MDT), as chaired by Khan, and was made an associate college of the University of Bradford (of which Khan is Chancellor) in December 2005. Currently, Khan is building another cancer hospital in Karachi, using his successful Lahore institution as a model. While in London, he also works with the Lord’s Taverners, a cricket charity.

Political work

Khan entered electoral politics after few years after the end of his professional cricketing career. Since then, his most significant political work has been to bring awareness towards the lack of justice in Pakistan. This movement to bring justice was coupled with awareness in media and harassment of judiciary by President Pervez Musharaf. The public, with the help of lawyers, NGOs and other major political parties, including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, fought a battle on the roads, getting judiciary eventually restored in its much improved (impartial)form . Initially, Imran Khan's politics were not taken seriously in Pakistan. However, his popularity has sharply risen, especially among women and the youth of Pakistan, after the repeated bad governance by the government and interference by US. Recently, Imran Khan has been the only politician who has responded to terrorism allegations on Pakistan. While Khan is viewed as a fundamentalist by some political circles, he has suggested solutions for helping US and NATO forces to fight terrorism while at the same time, not creating more terrorists in Pakistan. Imran Khan is sometimes viewed as a stubborn politician who does not involve others in decision making. However, Imran Khan has openly denied this allegation and claimed that the level of democracy in the executive committee meeting of his party (PTI) is unmatched by any other political party in Pakistan. While many people seem hopeless about Imran's political victory in Pakistan, he has known to someone possessing high level of determination and perseverance, as demonstrated by his cricket and philanthropic career. His political popularity is rising quickly in Pakistan and although the party has only one seat in 2002 elections and kept out of elections in 2008, resulting in no representation in Parliament, Imran Khan is considered as the one of the four major political leaders in Pakistan, especially by mainstream media (others being Asif Ali Zardari, Nawaz Sharif and Altaf Hussain).

On 25 April 1996, Khan founded his own political party called the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) with a proposed slogan of "Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem." Khan, who contested from 7 districts, and members of his party were universally defeated at the polls in the 1997 general elections. Khan supported General Pervez Musharraf's military coup in 1999, but denounced his presidency a few months before the 2002 general elections. Many political commentators and his opponents termed Khan's change in opinion an opportunistic move. "I regret supporting the referendum. I was made to understand that when he won, the general would begin a clean-up of the corrupt in the system. But really it wasn't the case," he later explained. During the 2002 election season, he also voiced his opposition to Pakistan's logistical support of US troops in Afghanistan by claiming that their country had become a "servant of America." PTI won 0.8% of the popular vote and one out of 272 open seats on the 20 October 2002 legislative elections. Khan, who was elected from the NA-71 constituency of Mianwali, was sworn in as an MP on 16 November.. As an MP, he was part of the Standing Committees on Kashmir and Public Accounts, and expressed legislative interest in Foreign Affairs, Education and Justice.

On 6 May 2005, Khan became one of the first Muslim figures to criticise a 300-word ''Newsweek'' story about the alleged desecration of the Qur'an in a U.S. military prison at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Khan held a press conference to denounce the article and demanded that Gen. Pervez Musharraf secure an apology from American president George W. Bush for the incident. In 2006, he exclaimed, "Musharraf is sitting here, and he licks George Bush’s shoes!" Criticizing Muslim leaders supportive of the Bush administration, he added, "They are the puppets sitting on the Muslim world. We want a sovereign Pakistan. We do not want a president to be a poodle of George Bush." During George W. Bush's visit to Pakistan in March 2006, Khan was placed under house arrest in Islamabad after his threats of organising a protest. In June 2007, the federal Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr. Sher Afghan Khan Niazi and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party filed separate ineligibility references against Khan, asking for his disqualification as member of the National Assembly on grounds of immorality. Both references, filed on the basis of articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution of Pakistan, were rejected on 5 September.

On 2 October 2007, as part of the All Parties Democratic Movement, Khan joined 85 other MPs to resign from Parliament in protest of the Presidential election scheduled for 6 October, which General Musharraf was contesting without resigning as army chief. On 3 November 2007, Khan was put under house arrest at his father's home hours after President Musharraf declared a state of emergency in Pakistan. Khan had demanded the death penalty for Musharraf after the imposition of emergency rule, which he equated to "committing treason". The next day, on 4 November, Khan escaped and went into peripatetic hiding. He eventually came out of hiding on 14 November to join a student protest at the University of the Punjab. At the rally, Khan was captured by students from the Jamaat-i-Islami political party, who claimed that Khan was an uninvited nuisance at the rally, and they handed him over to the police, who charged him under the Anti-terrorism act for allegedly inciting people to pick up arms, calling for civil disobedience, and for spreading hatred. Incarcerated in the Dera Ghazi Khan Jail, Khan's relatives had access to him and were able to meet him to deliver goods during his week-long stay in jail. On 19 November, Khan let out the word through PTI members and his family that he had begun a hunger strike but the Deputy Superintendent of Dera Ghazi Khan Jail denied this news, saying that Khan had bread, eggs and fruit for breakfast. Khan was one of the 3,000 political prisoners released from imprisonment on 21 November 2007.

His party boycotted the national elections on 18 February 2008 and hence, no member of PTI has served in Parliament since Khan's resignation in 2007. Despite no longer being a member of Parliament, Khan was placed under house arrest in the crackdown by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari of anti-government protests on 15 March 2009.

In April 2011, Khan lead protests over the drone attacks in the Tribal Areas of Pakistan. He and his protesters stayed on the streets overnight to show solidarity with the victims of these drone attacks by the US Military.

Ideology

Khan's proclaimed political platform and declarations include: Islamic values, to which he rededicated himself in the 1990s; liberal economics, with the promise of deregulating the economy and creating a welfare state; decreased bureaucracy and anti-corruption laws, to create and ensure a clean government; the establishment of an independent judiciary; overhaul of the country's police system; and an anti-militant vision for a democratic Pakistan.

Khan has credited his decision to enter politics with a spiritual awakening,"I never drank or smoked, but I used to do my share of partying. In my spiritual evolution there was a block," he explained to the American ''Washington Post''. As an MP, Khan sometimes voted with a bloc of hard-line religious parties such as the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, whose leader, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, he supported for prime minister over Musharraf's candidate in 2002. On religion in Pakistan, Khan has said that, "As time passes by, religious thought has to evolve, but it is not evolving, it is reacting against Western culture and often has nothing to do with faith or religion."

Khan told Britain's ''Daily Telegraph'', "I want Pakistan to be a welfare state and a genuine democracy with a rule of law and an independent judiciary." Other ideas he has presented include a requirement of all students to spend a year after graduation teaching in the countryside and cutting down the over-staffed bureaucracy in order to send them to teach too. "We need decentralisation, empowering people at the grass roots," he has said. In June 2007, Khan publicly deplored Britain for knighting Indian-born author Salman Rushdie. He said, "Western civilisation should have been mindful of the injury the writer had caused to the Muslim community by writing his highly controversial book, ''The Satanic Verses''."

Criticism

During the 1970s and 1980s, Khan became known as a socialite due to his "non-stop partying" at London nightclubs such as Annabel's and Tramp. though he claims to have hated English pubs and never drank alcohol. He also gained notoriety in London gossip columns for romancing young debutantes such as Susannah Constantine, Lady Liza Campbell and the artist Emma Sergeant.

Khan is often dismissed as a political lightweight and a celebrity outsider in Pakistan, where national newspapers also refer to him as a "spoiler politician". Muttahida Qaumi Movement, a political party with its voting stronghold in Karachi, has asserted that Khan is "a sick person who has been a total failure in politics and is alive just because of the media coverage". The Political observers say the crowds he draws are attracted by his cricketing celebrity, and the public has been reported to view him as a figure of entertainment rather than a serious political authority.

''The Guardian'' newspaper in England described Khan as a "miserable politician," observing that, "Khan's ideas and affiliations since entering politics in 1996 have swerved and skidded like a rickshaw in a rainshower... He preaches democracy one day but gives a vote to reactionary mullahs the next." The charge constantly raised against Khan is that of hypocrisy and opportunism, including what has been called his life's "playboy to puritan U-turn." One of Pakistan's most controversial political commentators, Najam Sethi, stated that, "A lot of the Imran Khan story is about backtracking on a lot of things he said earlier, which is why this doesn’t inspire people." Khan's political flip-flops consist of his vocal criticism of President Musharraf after having supported his military takeover in 1999. Similarly, Khan has been a critic of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif when Sharif was in power, having said at the time: "Our current prime minister has a fascist mind-set, and members of parliament cannot go against the ruling party. We think that every day he stays in power, the country is sinking more into anarchy.". In a column entitled "Will the Real Imran Please Stand Up," Pakistani columnist Amir Zia quoted one of PTI's Karachi-based leaders as saying, "Even we are finding it difficult to figure out the real Imran. He dons the shalwar-kameez and preaches desi and religious values while in Pakistan, but transforms himself completely while rubbing shoulders with the elite in Britain and elsewhere in the west."

In 2008, as part of the Hall of Shame awards for 2007, Pakistan's ''Newsline'' magazine gave Khan the "Paris Hilton award for being the most undeserving media darling." The 'citation' for Khan read: "He is the leader of a party that is the proud holder of one National Assembly seat (and) gets media coverage inversely proportional to his political influence." ''The Guardian'' has described the coverage garnered by Khan's post-retirement activities in England, where he made his name as a cricket star and a night-club regular., as "terrible tosh, with danger attached. It turns a great (and greatly miserable) Third World nation into a gossip-column annexe. We may all choke on such frivolity." After the 2008 general elections, political columnist Azam Khalil addressed Khan, who remains respected as a cricket legend, as one of the "utter failures in Pakistani politics". Writing in the ''Frontier Post'', Khalil added: "Imran Khan has time and again changed his political course and at present has no political ideology and therefore was not taken seriously by a vast majority of the people."

Awards and honours

In 1992, Khan was given Pakistan's civil award, the Hilal-i-Imtiaz

In 1983, he had received the President’s Pride of Performance Award

Khan is featured in the University of Oxford's Hall of Fame and has been an honorary fellow of Oxford's Keble College.

On 7 December 2005, Khan was appointed the fifth Chancellor of the University of Bradford, where he is also a patron of the Born in Bradford research project.

In 1976 as well as 1980, Khan was awarded The Cricket Society Wetherall Award for being the leading all-rounder in English first-class cricket.

In 1983, he was also named Wisden Cricketer of the Year

In 1985, Sussex Cricket Society Player of the Year

In 1990, Indian Cricket Cricketer of the Year

Khan is currently placed at Number 8 on the all-time list of the ESPN Legends of Cricket.

On 5 July 2008, he was one of several veteran Asian cricketers presented special silver jubilee awards at the inaugural Asian cricket Council (ACC) award ceremony in Karachi. On 8 July 2004, Khan was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2004 Asian Jewel Awards in London, for "acting as a figurehead for many international charities and working passionately and extensively in fund-raising activities. On 13 December 2007, Khan received the Humanitarian Award at the Asian Sports Awards in Kuala Lumpur for his efforts in setting up the first cancer hospital in Pakistan. In 2009, at International Cricket Council's centennial year celebration, Khan was one of fifty-five cricketers inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame.

Writings by Khan

Khan occasionally contributes opinion editorials on cricket and Pakistani politics to British newspapers. He has also published five works of non-fiction, including an autobiography co-written with Patrick Murphy. It was disclosed in 2008 that Khan did not write his second book, ''Indus Journey: A Personal View of Pakistan''. Instead, his the book's publisher Jeremy Lewis revealed in a memoir that he had to write the book for Khan. Lewis recalls that when he asked Khan to show his writing for publication, "he handed me a leatherbound notebook or diary containing a few jottings and autobiographical snippets. It took me, at most, five minutes to read them; and that, it soon became apparent, was all we had to go on."

Books

Articles

Guardian comments, political and cricket commentary by Khan

Telegraph columns, sports articles penned by Khan from 2000 to present

We must address the root causes of this terror, Khan's editorial in the ''Independent'' following the 11 September attacks

Benazir Bhutto has only herself to blame, Khan's 2007 editorial on Bhutto's return to Pakistan

References

Further reading

External links

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Khan's political party

Chancellor: Imran Khan at the University of Bradford

Imran Khan: Pakistan has lost its dignity and self-esteem, Imran Khan, ''The Independent'', 3 May 2011

;Articles

The NS Interview: Imran Khan Mehdi Hasan, ''New Statesman'', 20 August 2010

Imran Khan's revolution, Murtaza Razvi, ''Dawn'', 27 April 2011

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