Before forming his own political party in 1996, Imran Khan had already joined a government.

This is one fact that has completely gotten lost in the loud cacophony of noises in the media that have been commenting on his every move for the last three years or so.

After retiring from cricket in 1992, Khan had decided to put all his efforts in completing a cancer hospital in Lahore for which he had been gathering funds and patronage from the late 1980s.

Although he had studied political science at Oxford, and (during his cricketing years) did exhibit some interest in his country’s politics, he had gone on record to suggest that he was not cut-out for a career in politics, and that his disposition as a man was such that it would leave him struggling to come to terms with the thorny dynamics of politics in Pakistan.

But this did not mean he never harboured any political ambitions, because after all why (in 1991) would he be asking a spiritual guru what the stars in the cosmos and the lines on his palms were suggesting about his fate as a possible politician?

Even before he put forth this inquiry to the spiritual guide (pir), he had suggested that the lingering issue of Kashmir between India and Pakistan be resolved on the cricket field!

He made this statement in 1989 when he was still the captain of the Pakistan cricket team.

Nevertheless, though he had come out of an early retirement in 1987 to eventually lead the team to win the 1992 World Cup, he had done so purely on the belief that he could attract a continuous flow of funds for his cancer hospital project only as long as he remained a popular cricketer and a successful captain in a cricket-crazy country.