Cricket

  For 15 years, Pakistanis exalted Imran Khan as a cricket legend but largely ignored his politics. When Khan discussed cricket, the public hung on his every word. But when he campaigned for office, they dismissed him as an outsider. Now, asPakistan'stopsy-turvy political landscape careens into an election season, Khan the politician has emerged for the first time as a major force, his ascent directly proportionate to the rising tide of frustration Pakistanis feel over woes such as seemingly endemic corruption, poverty and shortages of power and natural gas. At an Oct. 30 rally in Lahore, he stunned the political establishment by drawing more than 100,000 people.

A rally in Karachi organized by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan drew a massive crowd of supporters Sunday, bolstering his image as a potent force in Pakistan's turbulent political landscape. Pakistani news reports estimated that as many as 100,000 supporters crammed into a field next to the iconic white marble mausoleum of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, on the anniversary of Jinnah's birthday. Looking out on a sea of red and green flags for Khan's Tehreek-e-Insaf party, Khan told backers that, if his party came to power, he would ensure that the rule of law was applied evenly and would work to eradicate the taint of corruption found at every layer of Pakistani society.

  As the sun set over Angkor Wat, the temple built for King Suryavarman II in the 12th century, I nosed my Vespa out into the line of three-wheeled tuktuks, bikes and cars. In my pink crash helmet and Gucci bike goggles, I felt as frivolous as an extra in the '60s movie "Quadrophenia," but my mission was a serious one: I was planning to travel the nearly 200 miles from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh in three days, stopping on the way to sample some of the weirdest and most wonderful foods Cambodia has to offer.

Once the foreign policy face of Pakistan, Shah Mehmood Qureshi has severed ties with the country's ruling party and is now eyeing a new political life, possibly with a rising party led by former cricket-star-turned-politician Imran Khan. Qureshi, a former stalwart within President Asif Ali Zardari's Pakistan People's Party, announced his departure from the party and his resignation as one of its lawmakers. At odds with the PPP since his ouster as foreign minister in February, Qureshi has been talking with Khan about joining his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)

Can sari-clad "cheer queens" stand up to short-skirted pom-pom girls? That's a question Indian cricket fans are pondering after a team here introduced a cheerleading squad wrapped head to toe in traditional garb, its members eschewing high kicks and splits for complex hand waves and traditional dance steps. "The concept of cheer queens is an extraordinary way of showcasing our national artistic heritage to the world," says Abhijit Sarkar, director of the Pune Warriors. Others say it's a nice idea, done somewhere else.

Jacob is a golden retriever. Like many goldens, his favorite activity is retrieving a tennis ball. We throw the ball; he brings it back and drops it at our feet. It can go on for hours. Actually, we don't know how long it could go on because we always give up before he does. But Jacob sometimes gets stuck when we play this game at my in-laws' pool. This is because of two fixed, internal rules he has. The first rule is that he must stay on land until he is as close as possible to the ball and then swim the rest of the way. The second rule is that he must enter the water gradually.

As their countries headed toward victory and disappointment in the final hour of the much-anticipated Cricket World Cup 2011 semifinal match, Waleed Ishtiaq and Nikunj Jajodia were dozing side by side. Wearing their respective countries' team colors — green for Pakistan and blue for India — the 20-year-old USC students had nodded off in their chairs at an on-campus screening of the game. Not even the intermittent cheering of their compatriots could rouse them. It was past 10 a.m. Wednesday in Los Angeles when India took the prize, after a nail-biting eight-hour contest.

Wednesday's semifinal Cricket World Cup match between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan is the hottest ticket in town, with national pride and claims of sports superiority on the line. Mix in geopolitics, the threat of a terrorist attack and warnings against match-fixing and you've got an event that is captivating the subcontinent. "Every roadside shop will be watching," said Ayaz Amir, a Pakistani columnist and lawmaker. "Basically, India and Pakistan will be closed on Wednesday.

In a nation pummeled by stifling poverty, homegrown militancy, and most recently, epic flooding, the game of cricket is supposed to serve as salve, a getaway from Pakistan's daily diet of trauma and crisis. Now, in the wake of allegations of match manipulation made against the national team, that salve is fast disappearing. And that has Pakistanis worried. "In all this chaos that our country faces, there should be some source of romance," said Chaudhry Ishtiaq Ahmed, a lawyer from the city of Lahore.