Inside the Imran Khan Row That Nearly Disrupted Pakistan’s Test at Lord’s

Pakistan's second Test against England at Lord's was briefly threatened with an extraordinary interruption on Thursday after the Pakistan Cricket Board objected to Sky Sports broadcasting an interview with Imran Khan's two sons during the lunch break.

The 18-minute interview, conducted by former England captain Michael Atherton at Lord's a day before the Test, saw Kasim and Sulaiman Khan speak publicly about their fears for their father's health and safety. The brothers, who have not seen their father since 2022 and said they have not spoken to him since March, claimed the former Pakistan prime minister is spending more than 23 hours a day alone in a small prison cell and is suffering from serious health problems, including severe loss of vision in one eye.

The PCB wanted Sky Sports to pull the interview and, according to reports, briefly threatened that Pakistan would not return to the field after lunch if the broadcaster went ahead with the transmission. Sky proceeded with the broadcast and Pakistan ultimately resumed play following discussions involving the England and Wales Cricket Board.

The episode was unusual even by the standards of the complicated relationship between cricket and politics in Pakistan. But the controversy at Lord's did not emerge in isolation. It came after weeks of mounting concern over Khan's health, a Supreme Court intervention, renewed appeals from some of the biggest names in international cricket and increasingly public warnings from his sons that they fear their father may not survive prison.

Who is Imran Khan and why is he in prison?

Khan is one of the most influential figures in Pakistan's modern history, both politically and in cricket.

He captained Pakistan to their only men's ODI World Cup title in 1992, defeating England in the final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Across an international career that began in 1971, he played 88 Tests, scoring 3,807 runs and taking 362 wickets.

He later moved into politics and became Pakistan's prime minister in 2018. His government was removed in April 2022 following a parliamentary vote of no confidence, after relations between Khan and Pakistan's powerful military establishment had deteriorated.

He was arrested in August 2023 and has since been imprisoned at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi while facing a large number of legal cases, including corruption and state-secret charges.

Khan has denied wrongdoing and maintains that the cases against him are politically motivated. His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party has repeatedly accused the authorities of targeting him and restricting his access to his family and medical care.

The Pakistani government rejects those allegations.

That dispute over his treatment has become increasingly important in recent weeks because of concerns surrounding Khan's health.

Why are there concerns over Imran Khan's health?

Khan's family and legal team have repeatedly raised concerns about his eyesight and his general condition in prison.

His lawyers have previously claimed that he has suffered a severe deterioration in the vision of his right eye. One claim cited in recent months suggested that he had been left with only around 15 per cent vision in that eye, although the government has disputed allegations that he has been denied appropriate medical treatment.

His family has also raised concerns about the psychological and physical effects of prolonged isolation.

The issue escalated this month when Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered that Khan be taken to hospital for a medical assessment. The court also sought to ensure that appropriate specialists, including doctors connected to Khan, could be involved in assessing his condition.

The order was significant because it came after sustained complaints from Khan's family and political supporters about his access to healthcare.

Authorities ultimately took Khan to a government medical facility rather than the private hospital his family expected. He was examined by doctors and subsequently returned to Adiala Jail after being deemed medically fit.

The government has defended its handling of the situation, citing security concerns and insisting that Khan receives adequate food, medical care and other facilities in prison. Officials have also said that Khan has received hundreds of visits from family members, lawyers and doctors since his imprisonment.

Khan's family, however, has remained deeply dissatisfied.

Why did his sons speak out at Lord's?

Kasim and Sulaiman Khan have largely lived outside Pakistan and have been unable to maintain regular contact with their father during his imprisonment.

Their appearance on Sky Sports therefore carried a significance beyond a conventional interview.

Speaking to Atherton with a portrait of their father hanging behind them at Lord's, the brothers described their fears in stark terms.

They claimed Khan spends more than 23 hours a day in isolation and said his health has deteriorated significantly. Kasim alleged that authorities were "blatantly trying to kill him in there", while both brothers expressed concern that their father could lose his life in prison if he does not receive appropriate medical treatment.

They were particularly critical of the handling of the recent Supreme Court intervention.

Sulaiman said the family had been "cautiously optimistic" when the court ordered Khan to be taken to hospital, only to see him returned to prison after what the family regarded as an inadequate assessment.

The Pakistani government disputes the broader allegations of mistreatment and has maintained that Khan is receiving appropriate care.

The interview therefore presented two sharply contrasting accounts of the same situation: Khan's family arguing that his health and safety are in danger, and the government insisting that he is being properly treated.

Why did 21 former cricket captains get involved?

The concerns have extended well beyond Khan's immediate family.

Last week, 21 former international captains from nine countries wrote to Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif urging authorities to ensure Khan receives humane treatment and proper medical care. The group included Indian greats Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Dilip Vengsarkar, along with former Australian captain Greg Chappell and Atherton.

It was the second such appeal from former international captains, following an earlier letter signed by 14 former leaders in February.

The former captains were careful to separate Khan's legal battles from their concerns about his health. Their argument was that they were not seeking to intervene in Pakistan's domestic judicial process but were calling for the implementation of a court-directed medical process and basic humanitarian treatment.

Their demands included an independent medical assessment, the restoration of regular family visits and any necessary medical treatment being provided without delay.

The involvement of such prominent former cricketers matters because Khan is not simply a former politician. He remains one of the most important sporting figures Pakistan has produced, and his imprisonment has increasingly become an issue that resonates within the international cricket community.

Atherton's involvement made Thursday's events at Lord's even more striking.

The former England captain was not only the journalist who conducted the interview. He was also one of the 21 former captains who had signed the appeal to Pakistan's prime minister.

So why did the PCB object to Sky Sports?

The PCB's objection centred on the decision to broadcast the interview during the Test match.

The board reportedly argued that the interview contained political material and objected to its inclusion in the live coverage of the England-Pakistan Test.

The interview had been recorded at Lord's on Wednesday, before the match began, but Sky chose to broadcast it during the lunch interval on the first day.

That decision prompted the PCB to complain to Sky Sports and reportedly consider keeping Pakistan's players in the dressing room rather than sending them back out for the afternoon session.

The threat was ultimately not carried through. Pakistan returned to the field and the Test continued, with their bowlers producing one of their strongest spells of the series as England finished the rain-affected day on 248 for nine before bad light stopped play.

But the episode exposed just how closely cricket remains intertwined with the political dispute surrounding Khan.

The PCB's position is complicated by Mohsin Naqvi

The controversy is also difficult to separate from the identity of the PCB chairman.

Mohsin Naqvi, who heads the Pakistan Cricket Board, is also Pakistan's Interior Minister.

That overlap between the country's cricket administration and its political establishment has inevitably given the Sky Sports dispute a wider dimension.

The board's complaint was therefore not simply a disagreement between a sports governing body and a broadcaster over the content of a television segment. The subject of that segment was a former Pakistan prime minister, former national captain and still hugely influential political figure.

Sky proceeded with the broadcast despite the complaint. The ECB was also made aware of the dispute, and discussions helped ensure Pakistan returned to the field after lunch.

Why this matters beyond one Test match

The Lord's incident is significant because it shows how difficult it has become to separate Imran Khan's sporting legacy from his political and legal ordeal.

Khan's image remains inseparable from Pakistan's greatest cricketing triumph. He is the captain who delivered the 1992 World Cup, a figure whose career helped define Pakistan cricket for a generation.

More than three decades later, his name has returned to the centre of an international cricket story for very different reasons.

His sons were speaking about a father they fear they could lose. Former captains from around the world were calling for proper medical treatment. Pakistan's Supreme Court had intervened over his health. And the Pakistan Cricket Board was prepared, at least briefly, to consider a sporting protest when the interview discussing those concerns was broadcast.

None of this resolves the competing claims over Khan's imprisonment or his treatment in custody.

What it does show is that his situation is no longer confined to Pakistan's courts or political debate. It has become an issue that is increasingly crossing into international cricket itself.

And at Lord's, one of the sport's most historic grounds, that collision between cricket, politics and the personal fears of a family was impossible to ignore.