Michael Holding slams ECB for pulling out of the Pakistan tour

Former West Indies cricketer, Michael Holding has slammed England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for cancelling Pakistan’s tour.

England men’s and women’s teams were scheduled to visit Pakistan to play 2 T20Is and 3 ODIs. However, the ECB called off the tour last month, citing “the mental and physical well-being of our players and support staff”.

Michael Holding said after he was awarded the Cricket Writers’ Club Peter Smith Award, that England showed “Western arrogance” while also comparing it with ECB’s “rubbish” response to the Black Lives Matter movement.

He said, “ECB put out a statement and hid behind it. It reminds me of the rubbish they did with BLM [Black Lives Matter]. What that signal sends to me is the same western arrogance. I’ll treat u how I feel like treating you it doesn’t matter what you think I’ll do what I want,”

“Pakistan went to England before vaccines were available [in 2020], for six or seven weeks. They stayed there, they played their cricket, they honoured what England wanted them to honour, to save England’s butt, to put it mildly,”

“ECB had an opportunity to try to repay to a small degree what Pakistan did for them. Their statement doesn’t wash with me. No substance. Nobody wants to come forward and face up to anything because they know what they did was wrong,”

“Four days in Pakistan? I’m absolutely sure they [ECB] wouldn’t have done that to India, because India is rich and powerful,”