Ten years after Michael Atherton made an award-winning television portrait of Imran Khan, the former England captain sat down at Lord’s with Imran’s sons, Sulaiman and Kasim. Their father was no longer sitting opposite him. He was thousands of miles away, imprisoned in Pakistan.

There are interviews that report a story, and there are interviews that become part of the story themselves.

Michael Atherton’s conversation with Sulaiman and Kasim Khan, broadcast by Sky Sports on 27 August during the England-Pakistan Test at Lord’s, belongs in the second category.

For approximately 18 minutes, Imran Khan’s sons spoke openly about their father’s imprisonment, deteriorating health, prolonged isolation, restrictions on contact with his family and their growing fears for his safety.

But the significance of the interview went beyond what was said.

It was also about who was asking the questions, where those questions were being asked, and the extraordinary journey that had brought Imran Khan’s family to that moment.

Michael Atherton and Imran Khan: A Story Going Back a Decade

Michael Atherton is not simply a television presenter who happened to conduct this interview.

The former England captain has documented Imran Khan’s life before.

In 2016, Atherton travelled to Pakistan for an extensive three-part Sky Sports documentary about Imran Khan, covering his childhood, cricket career, leadership, the 1992 World Cup, philanthropy and his transition into politics.

The programme went on to win Best Television Sports Factual or Feature at the 2016 British Sports Journalism Awards.

The judges specifically recognised Atherton’s ability to explore Imran’s cricket, politics and controversies through authoritative questioning.

A decade later, the picture could hardly have been more different.

In 2016, Atherton was sitting opposite Imran Khan himself, discussing the extraordinary life he had already lived.

In 2026, Atherton was sitting opposite Imran Khan’s sons, asking them whether their father would survive what was happening to him.

That is what gives this interview its historical weight.

From a Cricket Legend’s Life Story to His Sons’ Appeal

The contrast is stark.

The man Atherton once interviewed about leadership, cricket, philanthropy and political ambition is now imprisoned.

His sons have become international advocates for his welfare.

And the conversation has moved from:

What did Imran Khan achieve?

to:

What is happening to Imran Khan?

The continuity between the two interviews makes the moment particularly powerful.

The interviewer remains Michael Atherton.

The subject remains Imran Khan.

But Imran himself is absent.

His sons now have to speak for him.

Atherton Did More Than Provide a Platform

Atherton’s importance also lies in the way he conducted the conversation.

This was not simply a sympathetic interview in which the brothers were allowed to deliver prepared statements.

He asked difficult questions.

Why had almost none of Pakistan’s leading former cricketers publicly joined international appeals for Imran Khan?

Did his sons understand why Pakistani cricketers might be afraid to speak?

And perhaps most personally, knowing that their father had now spent years in prison, did they ever wish he had never entered politics?

Those questions allowed Sulaiman and Kasim to explain not merely their fears about their father but the wider environment surrounding his imprisonment.

It transformed the discussion from a political statement into a serious long-form interview.

Atherton Had Already Spoken Up

There is another reason his involvement matters.

Atherton has not approached Imran Khan’s situation from a distance.

Earlier this year, he was among a group of former international cricket captains who signed a humanitarian appeal expressing concern over Imran Khan’s treatment and calling for humane conditions and appropriate medical care.

He and fellow former England captain Nasser Hussain subsequently joined another international appeal as concerns over Khan’s health intensified.

Atherton had also publicly questioned attempts to remove Imran Khan from Pakistan’s public consciousness, observing that efforts to effectively erase such a globally recognised figure had become increasingly difficult in the social-media age.

Then came the interview.

Instead of merely discussing Imran Khan, Atherton gave his sons the opportunity to speak directly to an international audience.

And It Happened at Lord’s

The setting added another layer of symbolism.

This was not a political television studio.

It was Lord’s, during an England-Pakistan Test match.

The interview had been recorded at the ground before being broadcast during Sky Sports’ coverage of the Test.

Cricket was the world through which millions first came to know Imran Khan.

He became one of the defining international cricketers of his generation, led Pakistan to its greatest cricketing triumph in the 1992 World Cup and remained one of the sport’s most recognisable figures long after retirement.

Now cricket had again become the vehicle through which the world heard about him — except this time the voices were those of his children.

That generational transition is difficult to ignore.

A Father Who Could Not Be There

Perhaps the most powerful aspect of the interview is therefore also the simplest.

Imran Khan was missing from it.

Ten years earlier, Atherton could sit across from him and ask him about his life.

Today, his sons sit in that chair.

They describe his health.

They explain the conditions in which they say he is being held.

They discuss how difficult it has become to communicate with him.

And they tell an international audience that they fear for their father’s life.

Pakistani authorities have rejected allegations that Imran Khan is being deliberately mistreated and maintain that he has received appropriate medical care. But his family continues to demand independent medical access and greater contact with him.

Whatever one’s politics, the historical imagery is extraordinary:

A former England captain who once interviewed Pakistan’s World Cup-winning captain about his extraordinary life is now interviewing that captain’s sons about whether their father is safe in prison.

That is why this was more than another television interview.

It connected two generations, two very different chapters of Imran Khan’s life, and the worlds of cricket, politics and human rights in a single conversation at Lord’s.

Watch the Interview

Watch Michael Atherton’s interview with Sulaiman and Kasim Khan:
Watch the interview on YouTube

A widely circulated recording of the Sky Sports interview is available at the link above.