Cricket Australia has reportedly condemned the third umpire’s decision of not giving out to England batsman Ian Bell on the third day of the Lord’s Test as ‘bullshit’ in its Twitter account, although the comment was deleted later.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Bell has become the latest thorn in Australia’s side and has added more juice to the already brewing Decision Review System storm after he became involved in a catching drama and came at the centre of the latest umpiring controversy.
The report further said that even though Bell, the leading batsman in the series with 317 runs at 79 so far, edged Ryan Harris to gully on 3 and was clean caught by Steve Smith, he stood his ground and got his reward when TV official Tony Hill declared him not out, even though the footage showed Smith’s fingers under the ball.
Slamming the decision, the CA responded with an angry tweet on its Twitter account, saying that the decision was ‘bullshit’ and ‘sucked a**’, although the tweet was soon deleted.
Apologising for the ‘inappropriate’ tweet, CA, however, stated that the offending material did not come from its official Twitter presence at Lord’s, adding that it is currently investigating the source of the tweet.
According to the report, following the umpire decision, Bell went on to make 74 and the decision was backed by commentators on both sides of the Ashes divide, including David Gower and Shane Warne, who said that the footage was conclusive.
Although Smith appeared to indicate he had caught the ball cleanly but teammate Peter Siddle was more diplomatic, saying that he was unsure whether it had carried, and adding that he believed that the replay out on the field it was not too obvious.