Imran Khan, Pakistan Cricket Hero turned Prime Minister

Imran Khan was catapulted to global fame as a World Cup cricket champion, but the man known in the West as a celebrity playboy has become prime minister of Pakistan as a populist,The former national cricket captain was sworn in as leader of the nuclear-armed country of 207 million people on Saturday, coming to power as Pakistan faces challenges on multiple fronts.Khan entered Pakistan´s chaotic politics in 1996 promising to fight graft. For his first decade and a half as a politician he sputtered, with his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party never securing more than a few seats in the national assembly. "Sports teaches you that life is not in a straight line," he told AFP earlier this year. "You take the knocks. You learn from your mistakes." In 2012 the PTI´s popularity surged with hordes of young Pakistanis who grew up idolising Khan as a cricket icon reaching voting age. Khan admits his party was ill-prepared to capitalise on the wave during the 2013 election. But that was then. Five years later the PTI ran a nationwide campaign, mobilising support in areas far from its northwestern and urban strongholds. Polls showed the party´s popularity climbing nationally going into the crunch vote while the outgoing PML-N limped into the contest. Analysts have said that along with the youth vote, Khan may have tapped into anger among Pakistan´s growing middle class, fed up with the corruption that characterised both the PPP and PML-N governments. Some fear Khan´s mercurial nature is unsuited to being prime minister. Khan, though, grabbed the best opportunity many believed he would ever have to seize the biggest prize of the sporting icon´s life.