[deanhills]

You were dead right @Mashiro.  The simplest solution was to edit the sql file.  I thought I couldn't do it manually and that I had to look for a conversion tool somewhere.  Finally after hours of trying to find a solution how to make the changes, like a database fixer, it turned out to be a very simple solution.

Step 1:  Unzip the .sql.gz folder.
Step 2:  Open the .sql file in NotePad ++
Step 3:  The first line in the sql data base said:

Warning: Using unique option prefix pass instead of password is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Please use the full name instead.

I removed that line

Step 4:  I did find = pass and replace = password  

I had to massage it though as there were instances of password and NotePad then doubled it up.  So I had to use different ways of cleaning it up until when I tried find = pass again I found all instances to be a clean password replacement.

Step 4: I then saved the file.

Then when I imported it to the cpanel phpmyadmin, I didn't do it in zipped, but in .sql format.  And there were no issues.  It imported perfectly this time round.

What a relief!  And another lesson learned for a phpmyadmin noob.  I was looking for complicated solutions, and it was dead simple in the end.