Cricket Australia apologises for obscene tweet after controversial decision - Yahoo! Eurosport UK

Cricket Australia had to apologise after an obscene tweet appeared on its official Twitter feed following a catch from Steve Smith which was controversially disallowed by the third umpire.

CA is now investigating how the crude message came to be posted after Smith claimed a catch at gully, only for third umpire Tony Hill to dramatically rule that England batsman Ian Bell should remain at the crease.

Soon after the decision from the TV umpire, a rudely-phrased tweet appeared on CA's official feed, reading: "That decision sucked a** #bulls**t."

The tweet was swiftly deleted by CA's media team, who have been been present at Lord's throughout the Test, and an official investigation has now been launched as a result.

"Apologies for the inappropriate tweet earlier regarding the Bell catch. It didn't emanate from CA's official Twitter presence at Lord's," read a later message on the account.

"CA is currently investigating the matter."

A rather more phlegmatic response to the Bell decision had earlier been added. It read: "OUT! NO! What has happened there? Smith takes a low catch at gully. Bell stands there. Umpires review. Looks out. Guess not."

That tweet was also swiftly deleted.

But it has to be said that any frustration felt by Australia supporters was also mirrored by the players out on the field, with Michael Clarke's side clearly furious at the decision to rule out Smith's seemingly legitimate catch.

Replays showed that Smith managed to scoop the ball up as it was about to land, with the third umpire not seeming to have sufficient reason to not accept the catch. It was an unnecessary interference and entirely unfair to the fielder, who was then roundly booed by the Lord's crowd as a result.

Screenshots of the 'catch' (above) and the reaction of the furious and bemused Australia players to the decision (below).

Smith, in particular, was left dumbfounded by the call from the third umpire (below).

Dileep Premachandran of Wisden India commented on Twitter: "Oh my, the umpiring just gets worse and worse. High time the TV umpires were educated about angles. That was 110% out."

Cricket writer Venkatraman Ganesan added: "Extremely unfair to cast a slur on the honest effort of a fielder on account of the daft actions of an uncomprehending third umpire!"

The misunderstood concept of the 'spirit of cricket' has already been dragged through the proverbial mud in this Ashes series after pantomime villain Stuart Broad had the audacity and brazen cheek to respect an umpire's decision and not storm off after hitting the ball to slip.

But claiming a catch that wasn't? Well, that really is the nadir. Except that when Smith snaffled the low chance at gully he was well within his rights to celebrate.