Raja voices against neutral umpires

LAHORE: Pakistan former captain Ramiz Raja has joined former Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting’s call to get away with the requirement of neutral umpires in cricket, amid umpiring controversy in the first Ashes Test.

“The problem now is that controversies are still happening despite neutral umpires, because the standards have fallen drastically. We saw that there were a lot of mistakes in the World Cup, similar was the case in the first Test of Ashes,” said Raja.

The former Pakistani captain who was part of the then Imran Khan’s side, which were the flag bearers of introducing neutral umpires in the game of cricket, said that the ICC should pick the best umpires instead of neutral umpires. “There is no room for cheating now, thanks to the technology available and the awareness of the game among the masses,” said Raja.

“I would like to think the game has come far enough now for the game to not have neutral umpires,” said former Australian captain Ricky Ponting to Cricket Australia’s website. “People might say that with all the technology we’ve got now, it doesn’t matter that much. But it’s not a good spectacle when pretty obviously wrong decisions are made,” he added.