The Pakistan Cricket Board has lodged a formal complaint with Sky Sports after the broadcaster aired a live interview with Imran Khan’s sons during coverage of the second Test at Lord’s, dragging the politics of Islamabad into the heart of a summer’s day at the Home of Cricket.
Kasim and Sulaiman Khan, speaking on the first day’s play, used their appearance to raise alarm over the treatment of their father, the former Pakistan prime minister, who has spent the past three years in solitary confinement. What began as a routine piece of colour around a marquee Test swiftly veered into a stark account of prison conditions and alleged state abuse.
Khan’s legal team have long argued that his incarceration amounts to “slow-motion murder”, a phrase that has echoed around human-rights circles and, increasingly, the cricket world. His sister has claimed he has been tortured while in custody. The 73-year-old was briefly moved to a hospital last week after Pakistan’s supreme court granted a temporary release for treatment, only to be returned to prison shortly afterwards.
The PCB’s precise charge has not been disclosed, but the core of its anger is clear enough: Sky, as the official broadcaster, gave airtime to voices openly critical of the Pakistan government during an international fixture involving the national team. In the board’s eyes, the boundary between sport and politics was crossed on its watch.
Sky has acknowledged receipt of the complaint but has chosen silence in public, declining to comment when approached by the Guardian. The England and Wales Cricket Board has also been informed of Pakistan’s grievances. It, too, has opted not to speak.
While the governing bodies close ranks, the wider cricket fraternity has been anything but quiet. Many of the game’s greats have rallied around Khan’s case, pushing his plight into the mainstream of cricket discourse. Two joint letters have been published this year, calling for humane treatment and adequate medical care for the World Cup‑winning captain.
The group behind those letters is heavyweight: six former England captains, former India skipper Kapil Dev and Australian greats Adam Gilchrist and Greg Chappell among them. After an initial appeal in February, they returned this week with a sharper demand — for “a full and independent assessment of his health”, with particular concern over his right eye.
Khan’s lawyers say he has lost 85% of the vision in that eye, blaming the deterioration squarely on the conditions in which he is being held.
One detail hangs heavily over the campaign. Not a single Pakistani cricketer has signed the letters.
