PCB Protests Sky Sports Interview About Imran Khan

At Lord’s, where cricket usually drowns out everything beyond the boundary, the lunchtime chatter on the opening day of the Test turned sharply political.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has lodged an objection with Sky Sports after the broadcaster aired an 18-minute interview with Suleiman and Kasim Khan, the sons of former Pakistan captain and ex-prime minister Imran Khan, during the lunch interval. The conversation, conducted by former England captain Michael Atherton, centred not on cover drives or World Cups, but on their father’s health and safety in prison.

For a moment, the Test match itself slipped into the background.

PCB anger and threat of player protest

Atherton recorded the interview at Lord’s on Wednesday, the day before the Test began. Sky Sports then used a preview clip in its build-up to the series, flagging that the full piece would run during the match.

According to Cricinfo, the PCB moved quickly on Thursday. Before lunch, officials contacted Sky Sports and objected to the planned broadcast, making it clear they viewed the segment as inappropriate in the middle of an international fixture involving Pakistan.

The warning went further. The PCB reportedly told the broadcaster that Pakistan’s players could refuse to return to the field for the second session if the interview went to air.

Under that pressure, Sky initially held the piece back. Then came the twist. The full interview still ran during the lunch break.

The players did emerge for the afternoon session, but the dispute left an uneasy tension hanging over Lord’s. In Pakistan, viewers never saw the segment at all: state broadcaster PTV holds the rights for the series and did not show the interview.

The PCB has not issued any public statement on the matter, leaving its formal position hanging in the air even as the story ripples around the game.

Imran’s sons raise alarm over his health

On camera with Atherton, Suleiman and Kasim spoke not as political actors but as sons. They outlined their fears over Imran Khan’s condition in prison and voiced concerns about his safety.

They described efforts by the family to secure what they regard as proper medical treatment for the 1992 World Cup-winning captain, who has now been incarcerated for around three years. His health, and the level of medical care he is receiving, has become a steadily louder theme in their public appeals.

In recent weeks, the brothers have intensified those calls, pressing for greater and more reliable access to treatment as anxiety over his wellbeing grows inside the family circle.

Supreme Court order deepens the dispute

The broadcast row drops into a wider, already heated backdrop.

Last week, Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered that Imran Khan be admitted to Shifa Hospital in Islamabad. That directive appeared to offer some clarity on where and how he should receive care.

What followed only sharpened the controversy. Instead of being taken to Shifa Hospital, Imran was moved to the government-run Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) for a check-up, then returned to prison.

His sisters and sons have accused the authorities of failing to follow the court’s order and continue to insist that he be examined by his own doctor. Their stance has found support within cricket circles, as concern over the former captain’s treatment spills beyond politics.

Former international cricketers have publicly urged that he be given better medical care, adding the weight of the game’s old guard to a debate that shows no sign of quietening.

Atherton among captains backing Imran

Atherton’s role in the Lord’s interview did not come out of nowhere. He is already one of several high-profile former captains pushing for improved medical access for Imran Khan.

Last week, 21 former international captains signed a letter to Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, calling on the authorities to ensure that Imran receives proper medical attention in custody. The group spanned eras and continents, including former leaders from India, Australia, England, New Zealand and the West Indies.

It was not the first such intervention. In February, 14 former international captains had written to the Pakistan government on the same issue. Reports say that earlier appeal went unanswered.

The Pakistan government has consistently rejected allegations of mistreatment. Speaking to the Associated Press last week, officials said Imran Khan had received more than 900 visits from relatives, lawyers and doctors since his imprisonment in August 2023, and denied that he had been blocked from seeing family or legal representatives.

Cricket, politics and a Test overshadowed

The clash at Lord’s cuts to an uncomfortable question for the sport: where should broadcasters and boards draw the line when the game intersects so directly with the fate of one of its most famous figures?

For Sky Sports, the Atherton interview was a human-interest piece with a powerful cricketing connection. For the PCB, it was an intrusion of domestic politics into a marquee Test, serious enough that it reportedly weighed up the nuclear option of keeping its players in the dressing room.

The Test moved on. The overs ticked by. But the image of Imran Khan’s sons speaking from the Lord’s pavilion, and the threat of a team staying off the field in protest, lingers.

This is no ordinary off-field distraction. It is a reminder that for Pakistan cricket, the story of its most iconic captain is still being written, not on the pitch, but in courtrooms, hospitals and, now, live on air during a Lord’s Test.