Recently Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar and Dilip Vengsarkar were among those who signed a letter along with 18 other captains to the Pakistani prime minister, appealing for more humane treatment to Imran Khan.

It comes at a time when relations between the two countries are fraught and rival captains don’t even shake hands on the field.

Things were different when players like Gavaskar and Kapil Dev and Imran Khan were active, says veteran cricket writer Ayaz Memon. On the field, they were rivals and off the field, buddies, he said to Sidharth Bhatia in a podcast discussion.

“You will find many videos of Gavaskar praising Imran Khan, what made him such a great captain, a great bowler, and so on. In 1986 Pakistan beat India in India for the first time, but Gavaskar, with his 96 nearly saved the match And Imran Khan took time out to dis ...