Pakistan's Imran Khan on hunger strike - AP

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Roll Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth into one, throw in an Oxford education and a beautiful British aristocrat as an ex-wife and you get an idea of how big Imran Khan was as captain of Pakistan's world champion cricket team in 1992.

He's rarely made news as a politician — a rival once called him a sports hero and a political zero. But Khan was back in the spotlight Monday, beginning a hunger strike at the prison where he is being held for protesting against Pakistan's military ruler.

The hunger strike is the latest twist for Khan, a one-time playboy cricket star who retired from sports 15 years ago to become a crusading politician and devout defender of his Muslim faith.

Khan, 54, has never been able to translate his achievements in the gentlemanly game of cricket into success in the often dirty world of Pakistani politics.

But he is among the country's most recognizable personalities — when President Gen. Pervez Musharraf declared emergency rule, Khan was among the first of his political opponents targeted for arrest.

Khan eluded police for about a week, and was picked up and jailed after going to a pro-democracy protest.

On Monday, he decided to stop eating or drinking until judges that were fired when Musharraf imposed the emergency are reinstated, said his former wife, Jemima Khan. The two have remained close since their 2004 divorce.

"He plans to keep it up until the judiciary is restored. He could get very thin," she told The Associated Press in an e-mail from London, where she lives with their two young sons.

Prison officials denied Khan was on a hunger strike, saying he just wanted media attention.

Noted for his good looks and charm, Khan was not shy about his Western ways during his days at Oxford University and as a world-class cricket player. He drank alcohol, dated society women and eventually married Jemima, a British heiress of Jewish heritage.

By the late 1990s, a more devoutly religious Khan emerged onto Pakistan's often corrupt and chaotic political scene. He swore off alcohol and presented himself as just the man to clean up politics.

At first supportive of Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup, Khan soon broke with the military ruler and forged ties with Islamic fundamentalists.

In the 2002 elections, Khan even supported a pro-Taliban cleric, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, for prime minister. The cleric is now leading hundreds of Islamic militants battling government forces northwest of Islamabad.

Khan was among the first politicians in the Muslim world to speak out about a Newsweek report that a copy of the Quran had been thrown into a toilet at the U.S. military lockup for alleged terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay. The story was later retracted, but not before violent protests broke out.

In 2006, authorities briefly put Khan under house arrest to stop him from organizing protests when President Bush visited Pakistan.