Pat Cummins joins ex-captains in urging Pakistan government to treat Imran Khan with ‘dignity’

Australia Test and ODI captain Pat Cummins on Friday expressed his support to other former international cricket captains in asking the Pakistan government for better treatment of Imran Khan. Cummins is thus far the only active cricket captain to have done so.
“Adding my support here to GC and the other former international captains. I hope the court ordered medical assessment be allowed to run its course, and that family visits continue. I hope Imran Khan is treated with the dignity anyone deserves,” said Cummins, referring to former Australia captain Greg Chappell. Cummins statement came in a post on the social media website X in response to a tweet from the podcast The Grade Cricketer in which Chappell spoke about Imran’s health.
Adding my support here to GC and the other former international captains. I hope the court ordered medical assessment be allowed to run its course, and that family visits continue. I hope Imran Khan is treated with the dignity anyone deserves https://t.co/L1L512wXao
— Pat Cummins (@patcummins30) August 28, 2026
Chappell had got 14 former cricketers together in February to sign a letter to the Pakistan government asking for better Imran to be treated better in prison. A former prime minister of the country, Imran is widely considered one of the greatest captains and all-rounders of all time. He has been imprisoned since 2023 on 186 legal cases. It had been alleged that his family was not allowed to meet him and there wasn’t proper access to medical or legal facilities.
A second letter featuring seven more former captains as signatories, was released earlier this week, this time urging the Pakistan government for better medical treatment to be provided to Imran in accordance with a Supreme Court order. It was pointed out in this letter that while Imran was transferred to a hospital for examination by a medical board that was to include his own personal physicians and his sister, Dr Uzma Khan, the stay lasted only a few hours.
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“He was examined by a state-appointed team rather than the board the Court had directed, declared ‘medically fit,’ and returned to Adiala Jail before that board could complete its work. His family and legal team say this falls short of what the court ordered,” the letter stated. Former India captains Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar were signatories in both letters while Dilip Vengsarkar is a signatory in the second.
In the interview that Cummins has posted the statement in response to, Chappell said that Imran is struggling with vision in his right eye. “He has been in isolation for three years. I don’t know how anyone deals with that. Imran is as strong physically and mentally as anyone I played cricket against. But I don’t know how you deal with absolute isolation for three years,” said Chappell.
“I met up with him in Pakistan six years ago and he was still a strong and robust older man. That’s not the case any more. His right eye… the sight in his right eye, apparently he is struggling with it. I went back to our former captains, we got 14 who wrote the first letter and 23 (for the second).”




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