Thousands gathered Saturday at a Baptist church just north of Dallas to pay tribute to a broadcaster who called some of the most memorable games in NFL history, and also was known for his coverage of Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the Masters golf tournament and other sporting events.

The former NFL kicker died Tuesday at age 82 of cardiac arrest at a Dallas hospital.

With his deep, resonant voice, Summerall called 16 Super Bowls and was the primary television play-by-play voice of the NFL.

Former NFL analyst John Madden said Saturday that his broadcast partner's steady presence made Summerall the voice of the league. Madden, once a fiery NFL coach, was seen by many as the storm alongside Summerall's calm. The two teamed for 22 years covering games for CBS and then more briefly for Fox.

"I got up this morning and I thought, 'Pat, I need you,'" Madden told the mourners. "I couldn't get the tie straightened, a button buttoned. It was the same old thing."

Madden described his first year with Summerall in the broadcast booth in 1981 as riddled with confusion as the former coach struggled with the craft and fumbled with headsets and other equipment. But Summerall "didn't look down on me," he said.

"He didn't tell you he'd pull you through, he just damn did it," Madden said.

After talking at length, a despondent Madden looked upward.

"I know Pat's up there saying, 'brevity, brevity, brevity.' But just one more time I'm going to talk over you," Madden said, before reminding the audience of the deep faith Summerall developed in his later years.

One of Summerall's sons, Kyle, said his father had battled alcoholism for years but with the help of his faith had kicked it aside.

Summerall often shared his testimony with Christian groups and told his story when speaking before other organizations. In his 2006 book, "Summerall: On and Off The Air," he frankly discussed his personal struggles and professional successes.

Saturday's memorial service was powered by a group of church singers, a choir more than 300 strong, and NFL Hall of Fame players including former Cowboys quarterbacks Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman, ex-Dallas running back Emmitt Smith and former Cowboys wide receiver Michael Irvin. Fullback Daryl Johnston was among other past Dallas players who also attended, along with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and head coach Jason Garrett.

Summerall, who spent his final years in the Dallas area, living in Southlake, was a member of the North Texas Super Bowl host committee for the game played there in February 2011 in the $1.1 billion Cowboys Stadium that opened in 2009.

Another of Summerall's sons, Jay, said his father made time for as many people as he could, no matter their lot in life. The elder Summerall often spent time answering fan mail, sending along autographed photos, and serving as an ambassador for the Betty Ford Center.

Summerall in 2004 received the liver of a 13-year-old junior high football player from Arkansas who died unexpectedly from an aneurysm, and Summerall had remained in touch the teenager's family.

"There was no big shot in him," Jay Summerall said.

Added Madden: "If there ever was a book about good guys, he'd be the star of that book."

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Ditch Spock's ears. Lose the wacky costumes. Don't have characters spend so much time yakking on the bridge of the Enterprise.

That's the sort of advice Paramount is heeding as it prepares to open its sci-fi epic "Star Trek Into Darkness" on Thursday in the U.K., Australia and five other countries. Determined to make its sci-fi epic sequel a global hit -- unlike any of the preceding "Star Trek" movies -- the studio has gone to great lengths to make it more appealing to foreign audiences.

"I guess less Trekkie, more action might be the short story," Paramount's head of international distribution Anthony Marcoly told TheWrap Tuesday. "But since I arrived here 18 months ago, a primary part of my mission has been to make sure this movie succeeds at the overseas box office the way it will domestically, and our team has done a great deal to make sure that happens."

The film opens in the United States in Imax theaters on Wednesday, May 15, and wide a day later. Pre-release projections show it debuting north of $90 million domestically.

Extensive research, marketing tailored to individual markets, casting designed to resonate with international audiences and extensive ground campaigns by the movie's creators and talent like Chris Pine have all preceded the international debut. Over the past couple of months, director J.J. Abrams and producer Bryan Burk have barnstormed through Asia, Europe and Latin America, screening extensive clips.

"We did a lot of focus groups in a lot of countries, and asked what they liked and didn't like and we listened," Marcoly said. "Basically, it was more action, more of the adventure elements and less of the real Trekkie stuff." The stuff, in other words, that turned the 1960s TV show into a cultural phenomenon in America and launched the film franchise.

Paramount didn't have much choice. With a $195 million production budget, Abrams' follow-up to his 2009 "Star Trek" reboot will have to score big overseas to be a success. And that's a feat none of the previous films - including the last one - have been able to achieve.

Since "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" launched the film franchise back in 1979, the 11 movies in the series have taken in more than $1.8 billion, but just $312 million from abroad. Indeed, the franchise's appeal and cast of characters was seen as so U.S.-centric, that Paramount didn't bother to release several of the earlier films abroad.

The 2009 "Star Trek" easily became the franchise's biggest box office hit by taking in $387 million worldwide, but didn't make much of a dent in the overseas market with just $128 million. That's not terrible, but it meant foreign accounted for less than a third of the total grosses. That won't cut it in today's box office world, where pricey tent poles often double their domestic hauls overseas.

Warner Bros. faced the same sort of challenge last year with "Dark Knight Rises," since the similarly all-American Batman franchise had never been able to match its domestic popularity at the foreign box office.

The studio went out of its way to reverse that trend, but may have benefited most from the explosive growth in the number foreign theaters and the emergence of markets like China, Russia and Mexico. "Dark Knight Rises" was the first Batman movie to make more abroad than in the U.S. ($636 million to $448 million) on its way to $1.08 billion globally.

"Into Darkness" should be the first of the "Star Trek" movies to pull that off, according to Exhibitor Relations vice-president and senior analyst Jeff Bock.

"With the last movie, I think they essentially launched a whole new franchise," he told TheWrap. "Most of the people who will be seeing this film will know who Chris Pine is, and have no idea who William Shatner is."

"Into Darkness" was shot in 3D, and with the proliferation of those theaters abroad and foreign audiences' fascination with the format, that should further pump up the box office.

In addition to its marketing efforts, Paramount has stacked the deck in its favor with its overseas release schedule. The seven markets that it opens in this week were the seven in which "Star Trek" did the best at the box office. The U.K. was the best of those, with the film taking in $35 million over the course of its run there, a reality not lost on Paramount.

The worldwide premiere of the "Into Darkness" was held in London last week (photo at top) and popular British actor Benedict Cumberbatch (right) is the villain in the film. That's by design, and Marcoly said he expects the U.K. to be the most lucrative foreign market for the film.

"Into Darkness" will add around 25 markets the following week on, but has staggered several of the others. It will open in China later this month - none of the other films have played there - and in Japan in August.

"That gives us more time to promote and hopefully we'll be building on the momentum from the U.S. and the strongest foreign markets," Marcoly said.

The last "Star Trek" movie took in just over $19 million from openings in the same seven markets that "Into Darkness" debuts in this week. Another sci-fi epic, Ridley Scott's "Prometheus," brought in around $25 million from the same group last year, and Marcoly said he'd like to see this weekend's total land between those - or do even better.

"I like our odds," he said.

What the self-described "farm kid" was less certain of was how to manage a volatile business where market price fluctuations are common, the weather is unpredictable and long-term planning at least for his parents and their parents often meant scratching out financial estimates on a yellow legal pad or the back of an envelope. So, each Wednesday in the just-concluded spring semester, Anderson and a dozen other Missouri students crunched numbers in a campus computer lab, the male students' agrarian roots betrayed only by baseball caps sporting farm equipment logos.

The focus on data is intentional: While other classes teach ag students how to repair combines or learn the proper chemical mixes of common fertilizers, students in agricultural economist Kevin Moore's "Returning to the Farm" class create business plans using financial information from their own family farms. It's an approach more commonly found at the county agricultural extension office or in community college classrooms rather than flagship public research universities.

Moore says the skills are essential for the next generation of farmers for whom technology is second nature, but bringing their elders on board remains a challenge.

"For a lot of the students, the first time they actually get exposed to the real financial numbers on the farm may be through this class," Moore said. "Generally, Mom and Dad try to make everything rosy for the kids. ... For many, it's really their first honest exposure to the complete financial side of things."

The necessity of having those conversations will only increase. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the number of U.S. farmers older than 65 grew by nearly 22 percent between 2002 and 2007. Farmers 75 and older outnumber those under 25 in the country 5-1.

Anderson, a 21-year-old junior, returns to the farm that's 30 miles east of campus on the weekends to help out. When it's time to harvest the rows of soybeans and corn, he makes the same trip three to four times weekly. He also sells corn from his own small patch of land at a roadside stand in front of the family home, a part-time summer job he's done since he was nine that helps pay for college.

After graduation, he hopes to add 50 to 100 head of cattle and grow the family operation by another 500 acres, as well as sell seeds for supplemental income. He said Moore's class has given him the financial tools to support that decision.

"In high school, I didn't expect to get back on the farm. It seemed like times were getting tough," Anderson said. "And at Mizzou, I saw all these other farm kids who couldn't come back. But this is what I've grown up doing, it's what I have a passion for."

Dale Nordquist, associate director of the Center for Farm Financial Management at the University of Minnesota, said Missouri's practical approach to understanding farm finances is relatively uncommon at large, land-grant universities where both students and professors are more likely to concentrate on theoretical approaches as opposed to practical solutions, and the use of personal data can still be seen as an intrusion.

Beyond the nuts and bolts of finances, he said such training can serve an equally valuable purpose: It forces farm families to prepare their sons and daughters to take over the business.

"You certainly hear the stories about the older generation that never really wants to let go of the reins," Nordquist said. "Even though they might be going through the motions of letting go of the kids, they never release (control) of management.So they keep on doing the same thing ... Maybe they don't ever step back."

Garrett Riekhof, a Higginsville farmer and 2003 Missouri graduate who took the class a decade ago, said the course marked the first time he took a hard look at the business side of his family's operation.

"A farm is more than how many dollars of seed you have in the ground each year," he said. "These are business practices that any small business needs to go through to assess their health. I like to run my farm just like any small business would."

For some, the statistical approach could lead to a disheartening conclusion: The family farm may not survive another generation. And other students' parents remain resistant to opening the family's books even to their own progeny. In those cases, Moore encourages his students to "use me as a scapegoat."

Anderson's parents, though, were more than happy to hand over the books, and now their son shares his newfound insights into estate planning, asset transfer and other financial management details.

"I'm very proud he wants to come back, but I wanted it to be his decision," said his father, John Anderson, 53, whose three daughters also attended Missouri but pursued other professions.

"Technology is taking over agriculture just like it's taking over the world," John Anderson said. "And he's getting it firsthand."

___

Alan Scher Zagier can be reached at http://twitter.com/azagier .

Interior Minister Muammer Guler said the explosions hit the town of Reyhanli, a main hub for Syrian refugees and rebel activity in Turkey's Hatay province, just across the border. One of the car bombs exploded outside the city hall while the other went off outside the post office, he said.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the number of injured was 46 and some were in serious condition.

Erdogan said the explosions may be linked to Syria. The province has some 20,000 to 25,000 Syrian refugees, and "there may be those who want to agitate those sensitivities."

But he also raised the possibility that it was related to Turkey's peace talks with Kurdish rebels meant to end a nearly 30-year-old conflict.

Syrian mortars have fallen over the border before, but if the explosion turns out to be linked to Syria it would be by far the biggest death toll in Turkey related to its neighbor's civil war.

Syria shares a more than 500-mile border with Turkey, which has been a crucial supporter of the Syrian rebel cause. Ankara has allowed its territory to be used as a logistics base and staging center for Syrian insurgents.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu vowed from Berlin that Turkey would act. "Those who for whatever reason attempt to bring the external chaos into our country will get a response," he said.

The main Syrian opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, condemned the "terrorist attacks" in Reyhanli saying that it stands together with the "Turkish government and the friendly Turkish people."

The Coalition sees "these heinous terrorist acts as an attempt to take revenge on the Turkish people and punish them for their honorable support for the Syrian people," it said.

Reyhanli is a center for aid and alleged weapon trafficking between Turkey and Syria as well as for Syrian rebel activity. Apart from refugees living in camps, many Syrians escaping the civil war have also rented houses in the town.

The explosions came days before Erdogan is scheduled to travel to the United States for talks that are expected to be dominated by the situation in Syria.

"This ... will increase the pressure on the U.S president next week to do something to show support to Turkey when Erdogan visits him in Washington," said Soner Cagaptay, an expert on Turkey at the Washington Institute. "Washington will be forced to take a more pro-active position on Syria, at least in rhetoric, whether or not there is appetite for such a position here."

At least 15 ambulances were helping the injured, the health ministry said. There was no immediate information on the identities of the victims.

Abdullah, a Reyhanli resident, told the Associated Press he heard two strong explosions at about 1 p.m. "The bombs was very powerful," said the man by telephone.

The frontier area has seen heavy fighting between rebels and the Syrian regime. In February, a car bomb exploded at a border crossing with Turkey in Syria's Idlib province, killing 14. Turkey's interior minister has blamed Syria's intelligence agencies and its army for involvement.

Four Syrians and a Turk are in custody in connection with the Feb. 11 attack at the Bab al-Hawa frontier post. No one has claimed responsibility, but a Syrian opposition faction accused the Syrian government of the bombing, saying it narrowly missed 13 leaders of the group.

In that bombing, most of the victims were Syrians who had been waiting in an area straddling the frontier for processing to enter Turkey.

Tensions flared between the Syrian regime and Turkey after shells fired from Syria landed on the Turkish side, prompting Germany, the Netherlands and the United States to send two batteries of Patriot air defense missiles each to protect their NATO ally.

_____

Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.

Strategists in both parties disagree on the issue's power to influence elections next year and beyond. But after eight months of trying, Democrats are still struggling to move past the terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi last Sept. 11 that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Democrats insist that an independent inquiry, the dismissal of several State Department officials, and nine congressional hearings leave little new to say on the matter. But Friday turned up the sort of nuggets that feed conservative activists' belief that a major scandal may be at hand.

Newly revealed communications show that senior State Department officials pressed for changes in the talking points that U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice used a few days after the Benghazi attacks. These senior officials expressed concerns that Congress might criticize the Obama administration for ignoring warnings of a growing threat in Libya.

The White House has contended it only made stylistic changes to the intelligence agency talking points, in which Rice suggested that spontaneous protests over an anti-Islamic video set off the deadly attack. The new details suggest a greater degree of political sensitivity and involvement by the White House and State Department.

Rice and others eventually acknowledged that the Benghazi assault was a premeditated terrorist attack. Republicans say her Sept. 16 televised remarks were just the start of administration efforts to mislead Americans about what happened.

The incident was heavily politicized from the start, occurring less than two months before President Barack Obama's re-election and while Hillary Rodham Clinton was secretary of state.

The former New York senator and first lady, who infuriates many conservatives, ranks high in speculation about Democrats in the hunt for the 2016 presidential nomination.

Friday brought a fresh round of conservative broadsides against Clinton, Obama and the administration's handling of the Benghazi matter.

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a possible Republican presidential contender, wrote in The Washington Times restating his view that Obama should have fired Clinton.

Campaigning later in Iowa, Paul said he thinks the attack "precludes Hillary Clinton from ever holding office."

The conservative group American Crossroads released a 90-second video asking if Clinton was "part of a cover-up." The video, like emails and letters from several other groups, asked for political donations.

Benghazi hands Republicans some political opportunities, although none without complications. It may be difficult for average voters to sift through the chronology, assess blame or even follow the logic of GOP arguments.

For instance, claims that Clinton and others ignored calls for greater diplomatic security in Libya might be linked to the four American deaths.

But accusations about the post-attack talking points, which sometimes seem to dominate the current debate, have nothing to do with possibly preventing the deaths, thus robbing them of that moral heft.

Democrats note that an independent inquiry found that the State Department badly mishandled security needs in Libya. But it blamed officials no higher than the assistant secretary of state level.

Republican strategist Kyle Downey said Benghazi has exposed a trove of Democratic vulnerabilities, which might grow as inquiries continue.

He said Republicans should use the findings to challenge the competence, truthfulness and judgment of Clinton, Obama and other administration officials.

Republicans, Downey said, should let the politics play out in terms of which charges gain the most traction.

Some strategists say the Benghazi narrative may prove more valuable for congressional Republicans in next year's elections than in 2016. House Republicans, in particular, can seize on Benghazi to motivate their base and donors, and to fend off possible primary challenges from the right.

Democrats say Republicans are exploiting the Benghazi deaths, and voters won't like it.

"Republicans are a desperate party right now, trying to do whatever they can to dirty up the president to make some gains in 2014, and to dirty up Secretary Clinton because they're terrified she'll walk into the White House," said Democratic consultant Doug Thornell. "This is an attempt to keep their base together and motivated" after Obama's victories in 2008 and 2012.

Thornell predicted Benghazi will prove no more useful as a political "scandal" than did the highly criticized "Fast and Furious" gun-tracking program and the federally subsidized but ultimately doomed Solyndra energy company.

White House press secretary Jay Carney has spent hours trying to dismiss GOP accusations, including those that Obama sought to hide the fact that Islamic terrorists were behind the Benghazi attack.

"The whole effort here by Republicans to find some hidden mystery comes to nothing because the president called it an act of terror," Carney told reporters Friday.

Benghazi may remain a white-hot topic in many conservative regions and talk shows for some time.

At Wednesday's hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., told relatives of the four Americans killed in Benghazi that her constituents "think about you all the time."

___

Follow Charles Babington on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cbabington

North Carolina mothers, children and others who have been affected by gun violence will gather for Mother's Day events in Charlotte, Winston-Salem and Durham Friday and Saturday to raise awareness about the effects of gun violence on mothers and children.

Last month Senator Richard Burr was among those who voted against bipartisan legislation proposed by NRA A-rated Senators Joe Manchin and Pat Toomey that would have closed the loopholes that make it easy for criminals and dangerous people to get guns. Recent independent polls have found that 90 percent of North Carolinians support background checks for all gun buyers.

North Carolinians can sign a Mother's Day card urging Senator Burr to take action on gun violence

In addition, to mark Mother's Day, Roxanna Green, whose nine year-old daughter Christina-Taylor Green was killed in the 2011 Tucson mass shooting, released a video message. Link to the video

Event details are below.

CharlotteWhat: Mother's Day Rally against Gun ViolenceWho:Susanne Rallis of Moms Demand Action, Mayors Against Illegal Guns and concerned North CaroliniansWhere:Freedom Park, 1500 Princeton Avenue, CharlotteWhen:Friday, May 10, 3:15 PM

Winston-SalemWhat:Mother's Day Rally against Gun Violence and Petition DeliveryWho:Brandon Dandy, who lost his brother to gun violence; Mayors Against Illegal Guns and concerned North CaroliniansWhere:Senator Burr's Winston Salem Office: 2000 West First Street, Winston-SalemWhen:Friday, May 10, 2 PM

DurhamWhat:Mother's Day Rally Against Gun ViolenceWho:Kaaren Haldeman of Moms Demand Action; Joslin Simms, who lost her son Rayburn eight years ago to gun violence; Yolanda Bagley, who lost her son Jelani four months ago to gun violence; Brenda James, who lost her son Randolph five years ago to gun violenceWhere:Sister Cities Grove at Durham Central Park, next to the Durham Farmer's Market at 501 Foster St, DurhamWhen:Saturday, May 11, 11:30 AM

About Mayors Against Illegal GunsSince its creation in April 2006, Mayors Against Illegal Guns has grown from 15 members to more than 950 mayors from across the country. We have more than 1.5 million grassroots supporters, making us the largest gun violence prevention advocacy organization in the country. The bipartisan coalition, co-chaired by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, has united the nation's mayors around these common goals: protecting communities by holding gun offenders accountable; demanding access to crime gun trace data that is critical to law enforcement efforts to combat gun trafficking; and working with legislators to fix weaknesses and loopholes in the law that make it far too easy for criminals and other dangerous people to get guns. Learn more at

MEDIA CONTACTKate Downen:or 406-224-5056Erika Soto Lamb:or

SOURCE Mayors Against Illegal Guns

Amazon, which opened its Kindle e-book store in China in December, launched its Android app store over the weekend for China users to download both free and paid apps, Amazon China spokesman Billy Huang said on Monday.

Google's official app store only offers free apps in China. Google China declined to comment for this story. Android is Google's open source mobile operating system.

Amazon's app store must compete with hundreds of local rivals offering paid and free apps, some of them pirated, and users often worry about malware when downloading from these sites.

Amazon is the first Western technology company to offer a platform for paid Android apps in China and Huang said the company was working with software developers to increase the number of apps on offer.

Amazon China cornered less than three percent of China's booming 169 billion yuan ($27 billion) business-to-consumer e-commerce market in the fourth quarter last year.

The launch of the app store and the Kindle e-book store in China paves the way for Amazon to offer a range of devices including the standard Kindle e-reader and the Kindle Fire.

Huang declined to comment on the Kindle's release date in China. ($1 = 6.1556 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Melanie Lee; editing by Miral Fahmy)

The Daily Number mid-day winning numbers were: 0-2-3. The Daily Number mid-day Double Draw winning numbers were: 0-7-9.

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SOURCE Pennsylvania Lottery

The bishops left a few things off her résumé, . Notably, the announcement "does not mention two of Daniels's previous employers: Sarah Palin and the Thomas More Law Center," a conservative legal organization at which Daniels fought for the right of pharmacists tothe morning-after pill. She spent nine years, from 2000 to 2009, at the Thomas More Law Center, established in 1998 by its president, Richard Thompson. Thompson and his center increasingly tend to "make news by making provocative comments about Islam."

The more eyebrow-raising job is Daniels' work as a paid adviser to Palin and her political group, SarahPAC. Daniels signed up to work with Palin after doing some legal work for John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, at a time when "the former Alaska governor tried to remodel herself" after McCain's loss, . Daniels was described as "Palin's personal domestic policy czar," and that association leaves an open question for the bishops about "whether Daniels will deflect controversies or become a lightning rod herself," says Gibson.

Palin has continued to alienate herself from all but her most loyal fans on the movement's right flank, and it is not clear where Daniels' relationship with Palin stands today. []

Her heart belongs to her family and the church, and her work with Palin was an outgrowth of that.... One of the key questions the church is confronted with today is: How do we teach and share the Gospel effectively?.... How Catholics in the pews hear and what they hear plays a major role in that. But the media in all its mainstream and social forms is where most people's views of the church is formed. How do we engage there clearly, as Christians, lovingly and responsively? Kim has been devoting her time to just that question as a director of the Catholic Voices USA project. So I really can't think of a better person to be joining Cardinal Dolan and the bishops' conference in that effort to address that question. []

Daniels' hiring also looks like an effort to satisfy Dolan's goal of finding an "attractive, articulate, intelligent" laywoman to help recast the hierarchy's image... because, as he put it, "In the public square, I hate to tell you, the days of fat, balding Irish bishops are over." Yet Daniels, a mother of six, will also have to be credible, which means she would need to have a clear mandate. []

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Pakistan may be one of the most cricket-obsessed nations on earth, but no one is there because of Imran Khan's cricketing skills.

Most look too young to remember him captaining Pakistan to its only cricket World Cup victory in 1992. Instead they hope he will lead them to a very different victory: becoming Prime Minister after Saturday's elections.

"This is a revolution!" he declares, as we stare out at the crush of people. "Look at them! They are fed up with the status quo. This is an across-the-board desire for change and a fear the country won't survive unless we do. It's middle classes, young people, people who have never voted before, exactly like what happened in the Arab world. We are going to sweep this election."

Amid the exhilaration, there is also fear. The elections are historic ' it will be the first time in Pakistan one elected government will hand power to another rather than be ousted by a military dictator ' but also the most violent in the country's history.

Taliban bombs and shootings have killed 76 people in the past two weeks, forcing many candidates to campaign behind bullet-proof glass far from the crowds; some remotely by Skype; or not at all in the case of Bilawal Bhutto, whose mother Benazir was assassinated five years ago.

Imran, standing as "a man of the people", will have none of this. Earlier in the day in a dusty field in the far-flung rural district of Narowal, in the northeast of Punjab, where people had left muddy villages and piled on tractors to hear him speak, I watched him exhort supporters to break police barricades and run forward to the rickety stage.

The X-ray machine the crowds had walked through was of no comfort ' it was not plugged in. Police hurriedly wheeled in a mobile phone-jammer that nobody could work.

Now we are stuck in a car in a narrow street in a bazaar where three years ago 50 people were killed in a suicide attack. There were no security checks getting into his rally even though Imran says security forces are on "red alert".

Any of the men surrounding the car could be a suicide bomber. The black T-shirted Punjab commandos with "No Fear" printed reassuringly on their backs and AK-47s at the ready are nowhere to be seen. Our only protection is police with wooden sticks.

"There's no security," says Imran, shaking his head with horror as he watches the police whack his supporters. "We're all high-risk targets right now."

Finally we move, surrounded by flashing police lights and supporters on motorbikes. Imran's chief of staff ' who used to be his bank manager in London ' hands round cheeseburgers and Cokes. "Campaigning ' no food, no sleep and hardest of all, no time to pee," Imran says.

Moon Market, where he was forklifted onto a stage of shipping containers covered with carpets amid pounding music and cries of "Imran", was his eighth jalsa ' or rally ' of the day.

Although still rakishly handsome at 60, he looks exhausted. Since the campaign was launched three weeks ago, he has campaigned 15 hours every day, criss-crossing the vast country in a rented helicopter as he belts out speeches demanding an end to "status quo politics".

"It's my cricket training which is helping," he says. Yet the last thing he expected was it to be used in such a cause. "I couldn't even make a speech to my team when I became captain, I was so shy," he laughs.

It is an incredible turnaround. Although Imran has been revered both at home and abroad for his cricketing skills, his political ambitions have long been treated with derision: since he founded his party 17 years ago, it has held only one seat in the parliament. The popular Friday Times newspaper runs a cartoon lampooning him as "Im the Dim".

Today his crusade against corruption and dynastic politics has clearly struck a chord, making him by far the most popular politician in Pakistan. His Movement for Justice is turning Pakistan's politics upside down.

But he is up against the formidable political machine of Nawaz Sharif, who was twice Prime Minister in the 1990s.

Many wonder if the mercurial former cricketer is really the best person to lead this nuclear-armed country.

I first met Imran in the late 1980s when I was living in Pakistan. The Oxford graduate turned cricket star was the country's most eligible bachelor who every society hostess in Lahore tried to get to their parties, as well as being a fixture on the London nightclub scene.

It was hard to take seriously the idea of him running a political movement, particularly in Pakistan's entrenched system where many seats are won by feudal lords, whatever party they run for. His own background was hardly ideal, having fathered an illegitimate daughter with the late Sita White, daughter of billionaire Lord White.

Things started to change after the attacks in America on September 11, 2001, when he was a lone voice criticising Pakistan's cooperation with the US ' even if the West may question how committed that cooperation was.

A Pashtun, he has become an outspoken critic of drone attacks, arguing that civilian casualties are stoking such resentment that they are driving people to join the Taliban. "The road to peace is to get the tribals on your side," he argues. "Keep bombing them and you push them towards the terrorists."

Such comments have led him to be seen as anti-West and known as Taliban Khan, labels he angrily rejects. "If you don't bow to every western politician you should not be termed anti-West," he says. "I want us to be a sovereign nation, not slaves."

He turns the argument that Pakistan is not doing enough to end havens for terrorists back on the West.

"I would ask western countries like the UK to stop allowing money plundered by Third World dictators and politicians to be put in safe havens. It kills more people than terrorists or drugs," he says. "In Pakistan, 200,000 children die from waterborne diseases... because these guys have siphoned all the money so there is none for health and education."

It is widespread disillusion over such misgovernance that is making him so popular. Pakistan's merry-go-round between military rule and the same corrupt politicians who have looted the country has left it bankrupt. In the past five years under President Asif Ali Zardari, the country has gone backwards with power cuts of 16 hours a day in Lahore, widespread unemployment, and 25 million children not in school. Polio is still endemic.

So great is the frustration that during the Arab spring, Twitter was full of tweets from Pakistanis asking: "When are we going to rise up?"

At Imran's rally in Narowal, villagers say they are fed up with being neglected. "We have electricity just two hours a day and no gas to cook with as the rich use it for their cars," said Abdul Reham, a student. "Imran is our last hope."

It is young people such as Reham that Imran is banking on to sweep him to power. Some 70 per cent of the population is under 35, and 38 million of its 85 million voters will vote for the first time in these elections.

His appeal is not just to youth. Many women support him. Three of his sisters are out knocking on doors as are many Lahori socialites. One group sat with their husbands smoking fat Cohibas outside a coffee bar in Lahore. "We need to help the downtrodden," said one. "Our servants are getting angry."

Some American Pakistanis have come over to vote for the first time, too ' among them Tahir Effendi, a doctor from New York.

"I'm seeing the same energy here as with Obama in 2008," he said. "It's 'Yes we Khan' instead of 'Yes we can'."

Imran is popular, too, with Pakistan's powerful army, which says it is fed up with cleaning up the mess of the old politicians. The army genuinely seems to be keeping out of the elections, leaving some Pakistanis confused.

"This is the first time we don't know who's supposed to win," said Shahid Masood, a TV news anchor.

There are numerous other groups, including some extremists and a new party of A.Q. Khan, the godfather of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, even though he is supposedly under house arrest for running a nuclear black-market to everywhere from Iran to North Korea. His symbol is a missile.

Yet, even Imran's most committed supporters doubt the enthusiasm he generates will be enough to make his the largest party ' let alone give him a majority.

The hurdle is Pakistan's constituency system in which candidates rather than parties matter ' something Imran has vowed to end since it leads to corruption, even though he has brought in some of "the electables" into his own party.

He has also persuaded new people to stand, including Abrar ul-Haq, one of Pakistan's most famous rock stars, who has ditched his usual jeans and T-shirt for a traditional starched white cotton salwar and black waistcoat and is standing in Narowal.

Out on the stump with Sharif, it is easy to see what Imran is up against. Flying between rallies in southern Punjab in a private jet that has previously flown Beyonce and George Clooney and is stocked with yogurt drinks and Perrier, Sharif is statesmanlike and quietly confident.

He admits Imran is his main rival in the cities though says in rural areas the contest is still with his old-time foes, the Pakistan People's Party of Benazir Bhutto and now headed by her widower Asif Zardari and son Bilawal.

"Imran knows nothing except cricket," he shrugs. "And he is abusive, too ' he says he'll beat me with a bat. That's not nice."

In stark contrast to the seat-of-the-pants feel of Imran's campaign, everything around Sharif is highly organised.

Security is tight ' mobile phones are jammed. Before every stop, he is given a folder with speaking points. But he has done this for years. "I love campaigning," Sharif says.

The former industrialist entered politics in the 1980s as a protege of Pakistan's military dictator General Zia ul-Haq but has been toughened by a period of jail and exile under Pervez Musharraf.

He allows himself a smile when I ask how he feels about Musharraf being placed under house arrest after returning to Pakistan from London last month. "It's exactly what he did to me," he says.

Imran's chances of success depend on the voter turnout, which is historically low, about 40 per cent, even in cities. "If he can take that above 50 per cent and mobilise lots of new voters, then we will surely see him getting lots of seats," says Raza Rumi, a political analyst.

Estimates give Imran at most 40 of the 272 seats, which would leave him as kingmaker, the two main parties needing his support for a coalition. Imran insists he will do no such thing. "We'd rather sit in Opposition," he says.

First, though, Pakistan has to get through the elections safely. The only time Imran loses his enthusiasm and looks down is when I ask what his two teenage sons back in London think about all this.

He told them the next time they saw him he would be Prime Minister. But in the meantime, he admits, the elder boy asked him to stop. "They are very anxious," he says. "They are old enough to read the papers and see all the bombs."

THE SUNDAY TIMES, LONDON