Seven former Australia captains appeal for Imran Khan

Seven former Australia cricket captains have appealed to the country’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong over the treatment of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, adding to growing concern among prominent cricketers over his detention.

Allan Border, Greg Chappell, Ian Chappell, Belinda Clark, Kim Hughes, Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh signed the letter to Wong, stressing that they were speaking “not as diplomats or political figures, but as former captains who felt compelled to speak up”. The former captains said they were not taking a position on the legal or political case against Imran, which they described as a matter for Pakistan. Instead, they focused on the broader humanitarian issue of how people in detention are treated, calling it “a matter of basic humanity, whatever their politics”.