Who are the most popular sportsmen in Pakistan?

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With sports being a significant part of Pakistan's culture, Pakistan is renowned for producing world-class champions in Cricket. Cricket is the most prominent sport in the country having won international cricket events in the past years. The popularity of Cricket is an attributing factor to the rise of many online cricket betting sites. However, since not all of them are reliable, you should only follow to find the best betting sites for cricket on cricketbettingadvice.com.

Next to cricket, hockey is the country's national sport, although the sport's decline has been witnessed over the past years. Other sports such as Snooker, Football, Squash, Polo, Horse-Riding, Tent-Pegging and so much more are common in the country. Kabaddi, a traditional wrestling game is also quite popular, with Pakistan taking the lead in the recent Kabaddi world cup in February 2020.

Other than that, Pakistan is also home to many world sports champions. To ensure that you don't miss out on the most interesting facts about popular sportspeople in Pakistan, look at what we have for you.

1. Hassan Sardar
Born 22 October 1957, Hassan Sadar is recognized globally as the best centre-forward that Pakistan has ever had in Hockey's history. The captain and team player from Pakistan led the country to win a gold medal with the Men's National Hockey Team in 1984 during the Summer Olympics that were held in Los Angeles, California.

Hassan started his Hockey career in the early 80s when he played his first Cup in 1982 in Mumbai, India. He was announced Man of the Tournament after scoring 11 world cup goals. Later he managed the Pakistani Hockey Team and has been the Chie Selector of Pakistan hockey team. He is ranked among the Top 10 greatest field hockey players.

2. Wasim Akram
Wasim Akram is a former Pakistani Cricket player born on June 3, 1966. He has represented the country's cricket team in international competitions. He is a former cricketer and boss of the Pakistan National Cricket team as well as a Pakistan cricket commentator.

He started His international career in Pakistan against New Zealand in 1984 under Zaheer Abbas as the captain. He is currently the highest wicket-taker for Pakistan in test cricket with 414 wickets. A groin injury got in the way of his career in the late 1980s that led him to focus on bowling as re-emerged in the 1990s as a fast bowler. He was among the founding fathers of reverse swing bowling.

Wasim was admitted to the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2009 and served as the bowling coach for the KKR in India.

3. Jahangir Khan
This former globe No.1 professional Squash player was born on December 10, 1963, in Karachi. Jahangir Khan is referred to as the King of Squash and he remains the top-most player ever in professional squash globally. In his time, he won the British Open ten times and the World Open 6 times.

Coached by his father Roshan, who was the 1957 British Open Champion, then by his brother Torsam shortly before his death, Khan entered the World Amateur Individual Championship, at the age of 15, becoming the youngest winner ever in that event.

Torsam Khan's death in November 1979 deeply affected Jahangir to a point where he had considered quitting the game. However, he decided to continue with his Squash career as a way of tribute to his brother.

Khan retired from his sports career in 1993 and served as the World Squash Federation President from 200-2008. He later became Emeritus president. He recently won the winner of 8th Asian Award for Outstanding Achievement in Sport in 2018.

4. Hasan Habib
Hasan Habib was born, 19 April 1962 in Karachi. He is a Pakistani American professional poker player. Yes, you got it right, a professional poker player! In his early years, Habib was also the 14-and-below National Tennis Champion.

He travelled to America at 18 to study business at the Redlands University and owned a chain of video stores. Habib began playing poker in 1985, and in 1993 he had his first poker tournament cash. In 2004, he finished second after Martin De Kniijff earning him a $1,372,223 prize in the World Poker Tour. In the year 2005, he made the final table of the $25,000 World Poker Table champion again finishing in third place and bagging another$896,375.

He later won so many other tournaments in poker, and as of 2015, he has cashed 25 times in the World Series of Poker. His total live tournament wins to date are estimated to exceed $5,500, 000. He currently lives in Downey, California.

5. Muhammad Yousuf
Muhammad is the greatest Pakistani Snooker player, having won multiple world titles in his career. Born in 1952, Muhammad is the winner of the 1994 IBSF World Snooker Championship, 2006 IBSF World Masters Championship and the 1998 ACBS Asian Snooker Championship.

6. Samiullah Khan
Samiullah was born on 6 September 1951 in Bahawalpur. As a result of his great speed in the hockey field, he was given the nickname The Flying Horse. In the 70s and 80s he played as a left-winger.

He was a leading player in Pakistan's bronze medal in the 1976 Summer Olympics held in Montreal and won gold in Asian Games that were held in Bangkok in 1978. He retired from playing in the international hockey tournaments in 1982 while he was still captain. He managed the Pakistani team and quit in 2005.

These are not the only greatest sportsmen in Pakistan. Many other sportspeople have performed tremendously in international sports. Stay tuned for more!

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