Imran Khan
Mumbai: Former Australia captain and India head coach Greg Chappell has stepped up his efforts to secure fair medical treatment and welfare for former Pakistan Prime Minister and 1992 World Cup-winning captain Imran Khan. The letter also referred to Chappell’s last meeting with Imran in Islamabad in 2022, when he was Pakistan’s prime minister and, according to Chappell, “hale, hearty and fit. “Greg Chappell last saw Imran Khan in Islamabad in 2022, when Khan was Prime Minister — hale, hearty and fit, by his account. That letter, a follow-up to one signed by 14 former captains in February, followed developments that the group said fell short of a Supreme Court directive on Imran’s treatment.
The group said it was taking no position on the legal or political case against Imran, which it described as a matter for Pakistan. Their concern, they said, was the treatment of anyone in detention, calling it “a matter of basic humanity, whatever their politics. Khan led Pakistan to its only World Cup title. He also led his country as Prime Minister. Australians hold him in great regard — as a cricketer whose skill and leadership left a lasting mark on the game we share, and as someone who has helped improve the lives of Pakistanis by building cancer hospitals. The court had ordered that Khan be transferred to hospital for examination by a medical board including his own physicians and his sister, Dr Uzma Khan, alongside reinstated weekly family visits. Since the first letter, Imran’s former Pakistan teammates, including a tearful Javed Miandad, Wasim Akram and Moin Khan, have spoken out, as has current Australia captain Pat Cummins.
It is hard to reconcile that image with the reports now coming out of his detention, and that is why we write to you today, not as diplomats or political actors, but as former Australian captains who felt we should speak up.