The International Cricket Council is set to take away the right to terminate matches from umpires and hand it instead to match referees.
The move follows last year's row at the Oval after Pakistan became the first-ever team to forfeit a Test.
ICC chief executives recommended an amendment to the rule covering umpires awarding a match during a two-day meeting which ended in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates on Friday.
A final decision would be taken at an ICC meeting in South Africa in March, an ICC statement said.
In one of cricket's biggest controversies, Pakistan blamed Australia's Darrell Hair after he and fellow umpire Billy Doctrove docked them five runs for alleged ball tampering during the fourth day of the fourth test against England at the Oval.
The team refused to take the field after tea in protest and the umpires decided Pakistan had forfeited the game.
An ICC inquiry cleared skipper Inzamam-ul Haq of ball tampering, although it banned him for four one-day games for bringing the game into disrepute.
Hair was embroiled in further controversy when the ICC revealed he had offered to retire in exchange for $500,000.
The ICC board sacked him from the elite panel of umpires in November and asked its chief executives to decide whether the power to terminate a match should be with the referee.
Chief executives of ICC's 10 full members, three associate members, its president Percy Sonn, CEO Malcolm Speed and former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar, ICC's cricket committee chairman, attended the meeting.
