England's decision to rule Ben Stokes and Alex Hales out of selection until further notice is "absolutely right", says Mike Atherton.
Stokes will be re-interviewed by police over the next few days following his arrest on Monday on suspicion of causing actual bodily harm. Hales will also be questioned by detectives following an incident near a nightclub in Clifton area of Bristol.
Neither player was considered for selection for Friday's fifth ODI against Windies and that will remain the case while the investigations continue. Stokes was originally named in the England squad for this winter's Ashes, which begins on November 23.
The ECB says the decision to suspend both players on full pay was made after seeing a video The Sun claims shows Stokes present during an alleged brawl.
As things stand, Stokes remains the England vice-captain but the all-rounder will have to wait until the disciplinary process is complete before finding out if he will be included on the flight to Australia.
"I thought the ECB were absolutely right to do what they did yesterday, which was effectively suspend both players until the disciplinary process is complete," former captain Atherton told Sky Sports.
"What that does is create space between those two players and the team. It is inconceivable that Hales could have played today and I don't think that either of them can be involved with the team until those disciplinary processes have been completed.
"What [Director of England Cricket] Andrew Strauss has done is effectively outsource the internal process to this discipline commission - and that's the right thing because Strauss himself is very close to it; his job partly depends on England results."
Fellow Sky Sports commentator Nasser Hussain agreed that the ECB has "handled the situation pretty much spot on".
"It was absolutely the right thing to do to pick Stokes and keep him as vice-captain on the day that they announced the Ashes squad - innocent until proven guilty.
"The video footage that has since come out shows the severity of the allegations. I don't see how they could be anywhere near the team at the moment. We have to wait until the police investigation has run its course."