Summary Australia has asked for an explanation from the International Cricket Council.
SYDNEY (AP) The Australian prime minister, former playing greats and outraged fans were united in their criticism of a decision to give Australian batsman Usman Khawaja out caught behind on the opening day of the third Ashes test on Thursday.
Australia has asked for an explanation from the International Cricket Council as to why third umpire Kumar Dharmasena upheld an on-field call at Old Trafford, despite replay technology clearly indicating that Khawaja's bat made no contact with the ball.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd tweeted: "That was one of the worst cricket umpiring decisions I have ever seen."
As the hashtag "disgrace" trended on Twitter, former England captain Michael Vaughan tweeted: "Feel for a young player who is trying to make his way in the game...Really poor decision."
Another former England captain, Alec Stewart, added: "That is a ridiculous decision by both the on & off field umpires. DRS creating yet more controversy. Any wonder players don't walk!"
The DRS decision review system enables a third umpire in the stands to review on-field decisions at the behest of either the on-field umpires or the teams on the field. For caught decisions, it uses a combination of visual replays, thermal imaging and audio technology to determine if there was contact between bat and ball.
Despite all three technologies indicating there was no contact, the third umpire still upheld the seemingly incorrect initial on-field decision to give him out.
Australian Cricketers' Association chief executive Paul Marsh called for the officials involved to be fired.
"That is the most disgraceful decision I've ever seen. What an absolute joke. Put that down to human error - no fault of DRS," Marsh tweeted.
"The bit people are missing is that technology gave the umpires all they needed to overturn that. Complete incompetence. Jobs should be lost."
The Daily Telegraph in Sydney called the decision a "fiasco," The Australian newspaper said the DRS has become the "third competitor in the Ashes series" while the Sydney Morning Herald said the Khawaja call was the "howler of all howlers."
Former spin great and part-time Australia coach Shane Warne, working as a Sky Sports commentator at Old Trafford, said he was shocked that Dharmasena upheld on-field umpire Tony Hill's decision.
"I can't believe that," Warne said. "It's just a staggering decision. The technology has shown clearly that there was enough evidence to overturn a mistake. There was no hot spot, there was no noise, so you just expect that (to be) given not out.
"That's a shocker, that's an absolute shocking decision."
In Australia, Fox Sports commentators and former players Brendon Julian, Greg Blewett and Damien Fleming were outraged, with Blewett saying he had to be careful what he said in case he used a profanity on television.
Asked by the Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio's Grandstand Sport website to comment on the Khawaja decision, dozens of parochial cricket fans added to the criticism, with one exception.
"Funny how it's only ever unfair when the decision goes against Australia," tweeted one respondent from New Zealand.
