Former England cricketer, Michael Atherton has once again came forward in support of Pakistan and hit out against the ECB and its chairman, Ian Watmore for not providing a solid justification for the Pakistan tour cancellation.

Michael in an article published on The Times said that Ian’s press conference lacked answers.

Michael Atherton said, “It was more of an obfuscation than an apology, and raised more questions than answers,”

“Team England Player Participation (TEPP) held a number of meetings with the ECB over the tour and how Ian can say the board made a decision based on the players’ mental health without wider consultation is a mystery.”

In conversation with Times, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman, Ramiz Raja said that Ian’s statement has also left him in a state of confusion.

Ramiz Raja said, “It is still a very confusing statement. Security was not discussed as a roadblock amongst us. Further, Christian Turner [the British high commissioner to Pakistan] nailed that argument by staying with an unchanged travel advisory for the UK. And we know now that player welfare and security was not discussed with the team and, in fact, assumed as being compromised on the pretext of New Zealand withdrawing from the tour,”

The press conference took a strange turn when Ian commented on politics and said that “I didn’t know he was going to evacuate Afghanistan.” This prompted a comical response from Michael who said that Ian must have been “living under a rock” because America had agreed to pull all of its troops out of Afghanistan back in 2020.

As per Michael, Ian Watmore is also expected to get a call from Yasmin Qureshi, the MP for Bolton South East demanding answers.