Wasim Akram - The greatest cricketer I have played against

I'll get to the controversial stuff later but first things first.

What a way for Wasim Akram to end his last Test in England!

At, what Akram describes as his second home, Old Trafford, the Pakistan team rallied magnificently to give a fitting send off to the greatest cricketer I have ever played against.

Wasim will cherish this victory for many reasons I'm sure, not least after the comprehensive drubbing that was dealt out to the Pakistanis at the hallowed turf of Lord's.

Praise also to Waqar Younis who bowled a superb spell in the morning session and after lunch to keep the England reply in check and meant that only one team could win the game and that was Pakistan.

Now, I have to admit that England were my chosen team in this encounter but on the last day you could sense that Pakistan knew that if they could get England four down and expose the inexperienced [Ian] Ward and [Nick] Knight to a red hot Test match situation then the tail could also fold under the pressure.

Too true.

The unfortunate thing for England about this result is that they have now given the Pakistanis confidence and that's a dangerous thing.

They will have to best them first up in the tri-series to show that their camp is back in order. Secondly, they couldn't have shown a worse side to their game during that collapse.

There in England watching that game were the Australians who have an uncanny knack for smelling fear, then going for the jugular.

No doubt the England players will be reminded what happened at Old Trafford on numerous occasions especially next time they are in that situation.

Now the controversial stuff.

Poor Nick Knight. The bloke has been called back to the side then gets given out when two replays showed: one, the ball was going over the wickets comfortably and, two, it was an illegal delivery because of a no-ball.

There were further no-ball incidents and this situation raised a difficult question in our game.

Technology.

To what degree do we use it?

With cricket becoming bigger and more and more riding on the result of a game in respect of revenue and kudos both for players and countries, do we just sit back and say "Oh well, that's just part of the game."?

What if this game had been the final of the Test championship? What if had been the final of the World Cup?

Can a legitimate claim ever be laid to the validity of the result.

Professional sport in America is many decades advanced from our own game and the use of video footage there reflects that they want the proper outcome.

Some may argue that the time wasting involved in reaching the proper outcome is not right for the game.

This time delay is a small price to pay. We should use technology because there is too much at stake and the pressure on an umpire who has to live with a mistake that could cost a nation the World Cup will be too much to take for any individual.