By Staff Reporter
LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board came close to pulling its team off the field during the second Test against England at Lord’s this week, after Sky Sports broadcast an interview with Imran Khan’s sons in which they spoke of fearing for their father’s life.
The board has lodged a formal complaint with the broadcaster over the decision to air the interview, recorded on the eve of the match and shown during a rain-extended lunch interval on Thursday, the first day of the Test.
According to reports from ESPNcricinfo, the PCB contacted Sky Sports before the players broke for lunch to object to the planned broadcast, warning that Pakistan’s team might not return to the field for the afternoon session if it went ahead. Sky held off airing the interview while discussions continued, but ultimately broadcast it in full. By the time it concluded, Pakistan’s players were already preparing to resume play at 2.40pm, and the match continued without further disruption.
The interview was conducted by former England captain Mike Atherton, now a Sky Sports broadcaster, on Wednesday morning in the Writers’ Room at Lord’s, with the channel having run a teaser for it in the build-up to the Test. In it, Sulaiman and Kasim Khan, Imran Khan’s sons from his marriage to Jemima Goldsmith, described a marked deterioration in their father’s eyesight during more than three years in custody, and said they feared for his life.
The former prime minister’s health has come under growing scrutiny in recent weeks. Pakistan’s Supreme Court subsequently ordered that he be admitted to Shifa Hospital in Islamabad for examination. Instead, he was taken to the state-run Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences and returned to prison shortly after a check-up, a move his sisters and sons have described as a violation of the court’s order.
The PCB did not respond to multiple requests for comment on its handling of the matter. ESPNcricinfo reported separately that the board had also considered raising a formal complaint with the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Pakistan’s state broadcaster, PTV, which holds domestic rights to the series, chose not to air the interview.
The England and Wales Cricket Board was made aware of the PCB’s complaint and is understood to have played a role in ensuring the match was not affected, according to the Cricinfo report.
The Pakistani government has repeatedly rejected claims that Khan is being mistreated in custody. In a written statement to the Associated Press last week, the Ministry of Information said allegations of “cruelty, mental torture, punitive solitary confinement and medical neglect” were not supported by prison or medical records, and that Khan had received more than 900 visits from family members, lawyers, doctors and other approved visitors since his imprisonment in August 2023. It said he had also been permitted weekly meetings with his wife, Bushra Bibi, along with telephone and WhatsApp contact with relatives in Pakistan and abroad.
Cummins becomes first serving captain to back campaign
The controversy over the broadcast came as Australia’s Test and one-day captain, Pat Cummins, became the first currently serving international captain to publicly support calls for Khan to receive proper medical treatment.
Posting on X on Friday, Cummins shared a clip of former Australia captain Greg Chappell discussing his concerns for Khan’s welfare. “Adding my support here to GC and the other former international captains,” Cummins wrote. “I hope the court ordered medical assessment be allowed to run its course, and that family visits continue. I hope Imran Khan is treated with the dignity anyone deserves.”
Cummins’s intervention followed a letter sent to Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, signed by 22 former international captains from India, Australia, England, the West Indies and New Zealand. Drafted by Chappell, it called for the completion of an independent medical assessment ordered by the Supreme Court, including examination by Khan’s own doctors, and urged that family visits be allowed to continue. Signatories included Atherton, Ian Chappell, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Allan Border, Sir Clive Lloyd and Sir Alastair Cook.
It was the second such appeal from the group. An earlier letter, signed by 14 former captains in February, received no response from the Pakistani government.
Khan, who led Pakistan to victory in the 1992 Cricket World Cup and is widely regarded as one of the finest all-rounders the game has produced, was removed from office as prime minister in April 2022 following a vote of no confidence. He was jailed in August 2023 and has since been convicted in a series of cases, including one relating to £190 million in assets, which he and his supporters maintain are politically motivated.
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