West Indies great Brian Lara has joined a growing chorus of former cricketers and experts calling for jailed Pakistan legend Imran Khan to receive proper medical care, saying the former captain deserves “compassion and dignity” as a human being.
Lara, who faced Imran four times during the West Indies’ tour of Pakistan in 1990, said he was struggling to understand how someone who had once been “a beacon of hope, pride and inspiration” for his country could now find himself without adequate care.
“Imran Khan and I only crossed paths on the field a handful of times, but the respect I have for him was instant and lasting,” Lara wrote on Instagram on Saturday.
“I am struggling to understand how someone who was once a beacon of hope, pride and inspiration for his country, at the height of his sporting career, could now find himself in a situation where he is not being cared for and treated with the compassion and dignity he deserves.”
The 57-year-old urged authorities to ensure that Imran receives independent medical attention, stressing that his appeal was not political.
“I stand with my fellow former captains in asking that he receive proper, independent medical care and the dignity every human being deserves. This isn’t politics. It’s basic humanity for a legend of our game,” Lara wrote.
The former Pakistan captain, 73, has been incarcerated at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail since 2023 following convictions in corruption cases. His family and legal team have repeatedly raised concerns over his health, prison conditions and access to medical care, allegations Pakistani authorities have rejected.
Lara’s intervention comes after several prominent figures in cricket began speaking out over Imran’s treatment. India greats Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev, Australia’s Greg Chappell, Steve Waugh, Allan Border and Adam Gilchrist, and England former captains Alastair Cook, Michael Atherton, Nasser Hussain, Michael Brearley, David Gower and Andrew Strauss were among 21 former international captains who recently wrote to Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif seeking humane treatment and proper medical care for Imran.
Australia captain Pat Cummins has also publicly backed calls for an independent medical assessment and continued access for Imran’s family.
The latest international attention was fuelled by Imran’s sons, Sulaiman and Kasim, who spoke to Atherton during Sky Sports’ coverage of the second Test between England and Pakistan at Lord’s, highlighting concerns over their father’s health and safety.
Former Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) general secretary Syed Ashraful Huq has also added his voice to the cause. Huq, who has known Imran since the latter’s visit to Dhaka with the Lahore Under-19 side in February 1971, described the conditions of his imprisonment as “inhuman”.
“To keep him in jail in inhuman conditions is not what the world wants or what any civilised nation would want,” Huq said. “The treatment of Imran Khan amounts to barbarism.”
Huq said he and Imran had remained friends for more than five decades, recalling him as a “bright young fellow” who bowled fast and scored a century against his side in Dhaka.
The growing calls have increasingly shifted the discussion over Imran’s imprisonment beyond Pakistan’s political arena and into the cricketing world, with Lara among the latest and most prominent voices urging that the issue be viewed first through the lens of basic humanity.
