Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, 19 ex-captains seek medical care for Imran Khan
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New Delhi: Twenty-one former international cricket captains, including India’s Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Dilip Vengsarkar, have urged Pakistan to ensure that former Prime Minister Imran Khan undergoes a medical examination by a board as directed by the country’s Supreme Court.
In a letter to Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the former captains said any treatment recommended by the medical board, which would include Khan’s personal doctors and his sister, Uzma Khan, should be provided without delay.
Khan, 73, was captain of the Pakistan national cricket team intermittently between 1982 and 1992 before entering politics. He was arrested in August 2023 and has been lodged in Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail since September that year. He faces several criminal cases, most of them linked to alleged corruption.
On August 18, Pakistan’s Supreme Court directed authorities to take Khan to a hospital within 48 hours. He was expected to remain there until September 16.
The court’s directive followed longstanding demands from Khan’s political party and family, who have repeatedly raised concerns over his health and conditions of his incarceration.
However, Khan was taken back to prison after a brief visit to an Islamabad hospital on Friday.
In their letter on Sunday, the former captains said Khan had spent “only a few hours” at the hospital, where he was examined by a state-appointed medical team before being returned to Adiala jail, without allowing the court-directed medical board to complete its assessment.
The former cricketers said the medical board should be allowed to carry out a full and independent assessment, particularly amid reports that Khan has suffered significant loss of vision in his right eye.
They also called for Khan’s family to be allowed to visit him every week without interruption or administrative delays.
“Whatever the legal and political arguments surrounding his case, the basic decency of ensuring a court-ordered medical process is actually completed is not, in our view, a controversial request,” the letter said.
Among the signatories are former England captains Sir Alastair Cook and Nasser Hussain, and former Australia captains Greg Chappell and Steve Waugh.
In February, 14 former international captains had appealed for “humane treatment and proper medical care” for Khan.
The signatories at the time said they were making the appeal as former colleagues and rivals who shared “a bond forged on the cricket field – one that transcends the borders and disputes that too often divide countries”.
The Supreme Court’s directive to take Khan to hospital came after a medical board recommended that he have frequent meetings with his family to help manage his anxiety and blood pressure.
Khan founded the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in 1996 after retiring from cricket and served as Pakistan’s Prime Minister from August 2018 to April 2022. His government collapsed after his relations with the Pakistani military leadership deteriorated.
In January 2025, a court sentenced Khan to 14 years in prison and his wife, Bushra Bibi, to seven years after finding them guilty in a corruption case.
Amnesty International in December urged Pakistani authorities to “immediately restore” Khan’s access to his family and legal counsel in line with international human rights law.
The appeal came less than a week after the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture called on the Pakistani government to take immediate steps to address reports of “inhumane and undignified detention conditions” faced by Khan.
