ISLAMABAD, Sept 28: Former Pakistan captains Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Ramiz Raja on Thursday called for action to be taken against Australian umpire Darrell Hair after Inzamam-ul-Haq was cleared on ball-tampering charges.

Imran Khan welcomed Inzamam's acquittal and was dismissive of the International Cricket Council (ICC) decision to ban Inzamam for four matches on a charge of bringing the game into disrepute after the Oval Test fiasco last month.

“I welcome the acquittal of Inzamam and the team of ball-tampering charges. Pakistan have been cleared of very serious allegations of cheating,” Imran said. “The other offence is quite minor and I think the punishment is also minor.” Pakistan forfeited the fourth Test at The Oval after refusing to take the field after tea on the fourth day in protest at the decision of umpires Hair and Billy Doctrove to penalise them five runs for ball-tampering.

Imran, who branded Hair a “mini-Hitler” in a newspaper column after the Oval Test, added: “Now the next question is what to do with the man who created the whole controversy at the first place.

“If Inzamam is cleared of ball-tampering allegations, now clearly some sort of action should be taken against the man who was responsible for such serious allegations.

“That allegation caused the big incident where Pakistan ended up forefeiting the match.”

Former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja agreed. “The ICC need to pull up their socks and take a firm decision now on Darrell Hair,” he said, adding that he thought Pakistan should appeal against the verdict.

“Pakistan's lawyers now would be arguing that if he was not guilty of ball-tampering, why has he been handed out a four-match ban punishment? I think this case is not over yet and Pakistan should contest this decision agressively because they are in the right.”

Former captain and all-rounder Wasim Akram said that any umpire, whether it was Hair, would think several times before accusing Pakistan of ball-tampering in future.

Wasim said that Inzamam looked hurt after being handed down four one-day match ban, but the ICC had tried to safeguard its code of conduct in this case. “I said this a few hours before the verdict that ICC will ban Inzamam to safeguard its code of conduct. It is a sort of a mutual decision and nothing exceptional,” Wasim said.

“When the ball-tampering charges have been dismissed then why the ban,” he said. “Pakistan were only reacting to a false accusation of being cheats,” he said.

Another former Pakistan skipper, Rashid Latif, also felt that Hair is now in a difficult position. “The ruling of the adjudicator means that Hair was wrong in accusing the Pakistanis of ball-tampering without proper evidence. He is now always going to be under the scanner,” he said. —Agencies