West Indies great Michael Holding has slammed England for pulling out of Pakistan's tour and said they wouldn't have treated India the same way. He further called England's decision to withdraw from the tour 'western arrogance'.
England's men and women teams were due to play the T20I series in Rawalpindi on October 13 and 14, with the women's team staying on for a three-match ODI series. It would have been their first tour of Pakistan since 2005 if ECB had not cancelled.
“The ECB statement doesn’t wash with me. No substance,” Holding was quoted as saying by BBC Sport after receiving the Cricket Writers’ Club Peter Smith Award on Tuesday (October 5).
“Nobody wants to come forward and face up to anything because they know what they did was wrong. So they put out a statement and hid behind a statement. It just reminds me of the rubbish they did with Black Lives Matter,” he said.
“I won’t go back into that because I’ve said enough about that. But what that signal sends to me, is the same Western arrogance. I will treat you how I feel like treating you, it doesn’t matter what you think, I’ll just do what I want,” he added.
Holding understands BCCI is powerful and England wouldn't have done the same to the India tour. “Pakistan went to England before vaccines were available for six or seven weeks,” he said.
“They stayed, they played their cricket, they honored what England wanted them to honour, to save England’s butt, to put it mildly. Four days in Pakistan? I’m absolutely sure they would not have done that to India because India is rich and powerful," he further added.
(With PTI Inputs)
