Sarfaraz Ahmed says he, team knew nothing about Imran Khan sons’ interview with Sky Sports

Pakistan Test head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed has said that he and his players had no knowledge of Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) row with Sky Sports over an interview with Imran Khan’s sons during the Lord’s Test.

Speaking at a press conference on the second day of the match, Sarfaraz denied any involvement in the dispute. “I don’t know anything. I’m just focusing on the match,” he said when asked about the conversation between PCB and the England and Wales Cricket Board regarding the interview.

A reporter then asked whether there had been any suggestion that Pakistan’s players would refuse to return to the field after lunch. Sarfaraz rejected the idea outright. “No, no, no. You’re talking about the interview? We don’t know. We don’t know about the interviews,” he said.

When pressed further on whether his team had always planned to resume play as normal, Sarfaraz said, “We were all okay. We were having lunch at that time.”

The controversy stems from an interview Sky Sports aired during the lunch interval on the first day of the Test. Former England captain Mike Atherton spoke to Imran’s sons, Suleiman and Kasim Khan, who discussed their father’s health and expressed fears for his life. Imran, the former prime minister and Pakistan’s World Cup-winning captain, has been in prison for three years.

According to Cricinfo, the PCB lodged a formal complaint with Sky before the interview aired and warned that Pakistan’s players would not take the field for the second session if the broadcast went ahead. The board reportedly even considered pulling the team off the field in protest. Sky delayed the segment while discussions took place but eventually broadcast the full 18-minute interview. Pakistan’s players had already begun walking back out to resume play by the time it ended.

Atherton recorded the interview on Wednesday morning in the Writers’ Room at Lord’s, and Sky had promoted the segment with a teaser ahead of the Test. In Pakistan, broadcaster PTV, which holds the rights to the series, chose not to air the interview.

Earlier this week, 22 former international cricket captains wrote a second letter to Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif, calling for Imran to receive proper medical treatment. The signatories included Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Greg Chappell and Ian Chappell.

It marked the second such appeal sent to the prime minister in six months, following an earlier letter in February signed by 14 former captains.