NEW DELHI, Aug 27: The International Cricket Council should learn from the ball-tampering row involving Pakistan and entrust its match referees with more powers to ensure such unpleasant incidents do not occur again, former India captain Ravi Shastri said.

Shastri also expressed surprise at the passive role played by match referee Mike Procter in the entire episode which could have been avoided with a more “common sense approach”.

“I thought here the match referee could have played a bigger role in communicating. He could have stepped in a lot earlier,” Shastri said referring to Pakistan's controversial forfeiture of the fourth Test against England last week.

“He should have got the conversation going in a much better way, in the sense that once tea time, he should have got Inzamam-ul-Haq and spoken to him,” the veteran of 80 Tests and 150 one-dayers said.—Agencies