New Delhi: Former Indian cricket captains Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Dilip Vengsarkar are among 22 former international skippers from around the world who have written to Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressing concerns about the deteriorating health of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan. The letter, whose signatories also include Australia’s Chappell brothers and Sir Alastair Cook from England, seeks required medical treatment for Khan without delay as well the restoration of weekly family visits.
Khan is 73 now; he was arrested on 5 August 2023 on a corruption charge, and has been imprisoned at Adiala Jail, near the garrison city of Rawalpindi. The charges against Khan have since grown into an array, ranging from leaking state secrets to selling state gifts, all of which he says are politically motivated. In January 2025, however, Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, were convicted of accepting large sums of money and prime land in bribes from the Al-Qadir Trust. Khan received a 14-year prison sentence and was fined a million Pakistani rupees. His wife was sentenced to seven years in jail.The captains have three major requests: one, Khan’s health be assessed by a board that includes his personal physicians, as directed by Pakistan’s Supreme Court; two, weekly visits by Khan’s family, again as the apex court ordered; and three, treatment that the board orders be “provided without delay”.
