Sunil Gavaskarand Kapil Dev were among the cricketing legends who wrote to the Pakistan Government for the better treatment of Imran Khan, the country's former Prime Minister and their only ODI World Cup-winning captain so far. The Pakistan legend has reportedly lost 85% vision in one eye. Imran was one of the finest all-rounders of his generation and he captained Pakistan to a title win in the 1992 World Cup. Not to forget, he came out of retirement four years before the ICC event. He shared a good rapport with Gavaskar and Kapil and invited former India captains to his swearing in-ceremony in 2018. He was ousted as Pakistan's Prime Minister in 2022 and has been in jail since 2023.

Apart from leading Pakistan to a WC title win, Imran also had a key role in Gavaskar becoming the first batsman to score 10000 Test runs. Gavaskar created the world record during his farewell Test series against Pakistan in 1987.

Imran Khan stopped Gavaskar from taking retirement

Speaking on the DP World Dressing Room show during the 2025Champions Trophy, Gavaskar revealed that he wanted to retire after the England tour in 1986. He revealed his retirement plans to Imran, who stopped him from taking retirement.

“I got the opportunity to do so (reach 10,000 runs in Test cricket) only because of one Imran Khan. A year before in England after the first Test was won, Imran and I went with a friend to an Italian restaurant for lunch in London. I told him that this is my last series, I will quit after this series,” Gavaskar revealed.

“He was like ‘You can’t do that’. I said ‘What do you mean I can’t do that, it’s my choice’. He said ‘No no Pakistan is coming to India and I want to beat India with you playing in it. I don’t want to beat India without you, it won’t be the same. I said ‘Pakistan is not coming’. He said ‘ICC meeting is happening and you will hear the announcement next week’.

“I said ‘If that announcement happens, then I will carry on but if the announcement doesn’t come, I will finish after the next Test’. Sure enough, the announcement came through so I carried on. If I had retired that time I would have been at 9200-9300 runs. But because Pakistan came and there were two other series in India before that and I got close to 10,000 runs," the Indian legend added.

Gavaskar finished his Test career with 10122 runs in 125 games. He completed his 10000th Test run during the penultimate Test of the series in Ahmedabad. He scored 63 runs in the drawn fixture. The visitors won the five-match Test series 1-0.

Gavaskar was joined by Allan Border in the elite club in 1993. At present, 15 batsmen have scored more than 10000 Test runs. The list includes three Indians - Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. With 15921 runs, Sachin is Test cricket's highest run-scorer. Younis Khan is the only Pakistani batsman to breach this milestone. He retired in 2017.

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