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Akram calls for neutral umpires

Pakistan captain Wasim Akram has called for neutral umpires in order to prevent world class batsmen like Sachin Tendulkar from being given out wrongly.

Akram agreed with commentators Sunil Gavaskar and Ian Chappell that Glen McGrath's delivery, which got the Indian captain out lbw in India's second innings of the first Test in Adelaide, would not have hit the stumps.

Tendulkar, who got a dubious decision in the first innings, was adjudged leg-before by the same Australian umpire, Daryl Harper, in the second, when he ducked to a ball which did not rise and hit his shoulder.

Akram said he saw the incident on television and as a bowler he was sure that the ball would have gone over the stumps.

"To avoid such freak dismissals it is time for the International Cricket Conference (ICC) to appoint neutral umpires," he said.

He said he has sympathy for India in their reluctance to accept the controversial Darrell Hair as umpire for their matches.

Meanwhile, Akram himself has come under fire from his once ally Waqar Younis, who has blamed the captain for holding a personal grudge and plotting his removal from the one-day series in Australia.

"I was underbowled deliberately by Akram in the Hobart Test which was one of the reasons Pakistan lost it," he alleged.

Akram has defended Waqar's exclusion, pointing to the bowler's poor showing.

UNI