Brian Lara joins cricket legends in call for proper medical care for Imran Khan

West Indies batting great Brian Lara on Saturday joined an international appeal for proper medical treatment and dignified conditions for imprisoned former Pakistan captain and prime minister Imran Khan, saying the issue was one of “basic humanity”, rather than politics.

Last month, 22 international cricketers, including 21 ex-captains, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif appealing for the ex-premier’s medical treatment in line with recent Supreme Court directives. The letter’s signatories included Michael Atherton, Alex Blackwell, Allan Border, Michael Brearley and Greg Chappell, among others.

In a statement posted on his official Instagram account, Lara said he and Imran had crossed paths only a handful of times on the cricket field, but the respect he had for the 1992 World Cup-winning captain was “instant and lasting”.

“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,” Lara wrote.

He said he stood with fellow former international captains in calling for Imran to be provided with “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 said.

Imran has been in jail since August 2023, convicted in a string of cases that he says were politically driven following his ouster in a 2022 parliamentary vote.

There has been much ado over his health in recent months, with him having been taken to the hospital multiple times for an eye ailment — right central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) — that came to light in late January.

Meanwhile, his party, the PTI, and the government have been engaged in a blame game, with the former accusing the latter of a lack of transparency in not ensuring appropriate treatment for Imran.

On August 18, the Supreme Court directed the government to move Imran to Islamabad’s Shifa International Hospital, a private facility, within two days for examination and treatment by a multidisciplinary medical board.

However, it later turned out that Imran was instead taken to the government-run Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims).

Meanwhile, it was also reported that he could not undergo a recommended computed tomography angiography (CTA) at Pims as the required facilities were unavailable at the hospital.