Imran Khan, Benazir Bhutto were an item, claims book

The author of a new biography of Imran Khan claims that the cricketer-turned-politician was romantically involved with late former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto when both of them studied together at Oxford University.

In his book, Christopher Sandford writes that Bhutto became infatuated with Khan, and the pair enjoyed a "close" and possibly "sexual" relationship. The author has also alleged that Khan''s mother even tried to organise an arranged marriage between the pair, but to no avail.

It was believed that Khan and Bhutto had always been at loggerheads, both politically and personally. In fact, Khan openly criticised the former Prime Minister just days before her death. But Sandford, who interviewed both Khan and his ex-wife Jemima for the book, claimed that a source told him that Bhutto was 21, and in her second year of reading politics at Lady Margaret Hall, when she became close to Khan in 1975.

The source also revealed that she had been "visibly impressed" by Khan, and might even have been the first to call him the "Lion of Lahore". "In any event, it seems fairly clear that, for at least a month or two, the couple were close. There was a lot of giggling and blushing whenever they appeared together in public," the Telegraph quoted Sandford as having told the Daily Mail.

He added: "It also seems fair to say that the relationship was "sexual", in the sense that it could only have existed between a man and a woman. The reason some supposed it went further was because, to quote one Oxford friend: ''Imran slept with everyone.''"

However, the former Pakistan cricket captain has rebuffed these claims, saying that he never had a sexual relationship with Bhutto. Although he agreed to having been interviewed for the book, but claimed to have not read it as yet. "Yes, I was interviewed, but I know nothing about the rest of what has been written. So it is not official," he told the Daily Mail. "It is absolute nonsense about any sexual relationship or my mother and an arranged marriage. We were friends - that''s all," he added.