Imran and Gavaskar at Lord’s on August 22, 1987. (Getty Images)

Sunil Gavaskar on his old friend Imran Khan who became Pakistan's Prime Minister

"You can't retire now. Pakistan is coming to India next year and I want to beat India in India. If you aren't part of that team, it won't be the same. Come on, let's have one last tilt against each other," Imran Khan replied when I told him I planned to retire at the end of the India tour of England.

It was in 1986 and we were having lunch at an Italian restaurant in London. I said if the announcement of the tour wasn't made before the final Test, I would go ahead and announce my retirement from international cricket. The tour was indeed announced in a few days. Pakistan won the last and final Test of that series after the earlier Tests were all drawn and thus beat India for the first time in India.

I didn't announce my retirement at the end of the Pakistan series as I was keen on playing the MCC bi-centenary Test at Lord's a little later.

When that side was announced, there was Kapil Dev , Dilip Vengsarkar , Imran and Javed Miandad . Imran and I had a partnership of 182 runs and what I enjoyed was the chats we had at the end of each over when two batsmen usually come down the pitch to encourage each other.

People of India would want Imran to usher in a new era of friendship

That's exactly how it was at first as we tried to assess the bowlers and the situation but as the partnership grew and settled in, Imran and I were telling each other stories from the Pakistan and Indian dressing rooms and having a laugh over it. Then when he smashed a six in the MCC President's box, I joked that this was not expected when they selected him for the game. He turned around and asked where the media box was and I said it's too far even for you to hit there.

We have known each other since 1971 when he was trying to qualify for Worcestershire County team. He was then just a scrawny kid, a medium pacer with an open chested action bowling inswingers but with little or no control. By the time we played him in a Test match seven years down the road, he had filled up and was now genuinely quick. The inswingers were still his stock deliveries but he had also developed the one that went straight through and got batsmen out caught behind as they played inside the line anticipating the inswinger.

He destroyed India almost single-handedly in 1982-83 taking 40 wickets and in the process ended the career of India's best batsman of the decade, GR Viswanath. 'Vishy' shouldered arms to a ball way outside the off-stump and it swung so much that it almost knocked the leg-stump out.

He had a vision before the 1992 World Cup started that Pakistan would win the trophy and that's exactly how it turned out. His belief despite Pakistan's slow start to the tournament was unshakeable. By that time, he had started work on building a cancer hospital in memory of his mother who had succumbed to the dreaded disease some years earlier.

It was while going for fund raising all over Pakistan that he realised what an impact he could have on the Pakistani public and that's where I believe the first germ of entering politics was sown. When he decided to enter the game he gave it everything and today, after tasting defeat in a couple of earlier elections. he is ready to take on the mantle of the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Just like in cricket, a captain is only as good as his team and so much will depend on his colleagues.

If his success as the cricket skipper is anything to go by, he will instill not just a sense of self-belief but also destiny in his ministerial and party colleagues.

He is the only Prime Minister of Pakistan who has come to India several times as an ordinary citizen and has interacted not only with the high society types but also the man on the street who met him as a fan. He should therefore be well aware that most Indians would want him to succeed as a Prime Minister and usher in a new era of friendship, and look forward not back.

A few years after he retired from the game he started to lose hair at the top and I welcomed him to the 'Puri Club'. He looked perplexed as he asked, 'Puri Club?' I told him that all those who lose hair at the top have that bald spot like a puri and thus the Puri Club, but added that we both must ensure the puri does not become a paratha. He laughed and now you can see that he has grown his hair and it covers the puri. He has taken care of that problem.

However, now, not just Pakistanis but the Indians also want him to take care of the problems between the two countries and bring a new zest to the relationship, for if Imran 'Khant' then nobody can.

I won't be able to attend his swearing-in ceremony but my good wishes are with him as he embarks on the greatest challenge of his life.

Good luck and God bless, Immy.

