Sports Desk – Friends, today we are going to tell you about a history of cricket about which very few people know. This story is former Pakistani cricketer Imran Khan and former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Imran Khan, who won the World Cup for Pakistan under his captaincy in the year 1992, was once out of the team. The then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was handed the World Cup trophy by Imran Khan and due to him, Imran had to be dropped from the team.
This story is from the year 1987. When the Cricket World Cup was to be played in India and Pakistan. Before that Pakistan’s warm-up match was to be against West Indies. During that time Pakistan captain was Imran Khan. Nawaz Sharif, the then Chief Minister of Punjab, decided to captain the Pakistan team himself.
According to the news of Times of India, Imran Khan himself has revealed this in his autobiography Pakistan: a personal history. In the book, he wrote – ‘I was the captain of Pakistan at the time before the 1987 Cricket World Cup was played. We were supposed to play a warm-up match against the West Indies at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. Before the match, Cricket Board secretary Shahid Rafi confirmed that Punjab Chief Minister Nawaz Sharif will captain the match. At that time I felt that Nawaz Sharif would remain in the dressing room and enjoy the match as a player. But I was surprised when he reached for the toss wearing a jersey. At that time, West Indies captain Vivian Richards stood for the toss.
Imran further wrote, ‘After winning the toss, Nawaz decided to bat first and came to the dressing room and started wearing pads. The whole team was surprised, no one was convinced that Nawaz Sharif is going to open with opener Mudassar Nazar. At that time the bowling of West Indies was very dangerous. Mudassar Nazar and Sharif were ready for batting.
He wrote, ‘The first ball played by Nawaz Sharif stood in front of the 6-foot tall bowler. Which ruined the career of the strong batsmen with their balls. At that time, the West Indies bowlers tried to injure by hitting the batsman’s body. The first ball came out of Nawaz Sharif at such a high speed that he could not even lift his bat. Nawaz Sharif could not do anything on the second ball and bowled. The match was played on 4 October 1987.
