Leeds: Former Test captain Mark Taylor has slammed cricket’s player-controlled review system after the television official at Headingley was left unable to overturn a match-swinging decision from umpire Joel Wilson at the climax of the epic third Test due to Australia’s profligacy with referrals.

As Australia coach Justin Langer admitted his team’s decision-making on referrals had been “really poor” during the series against England, captain Tim Paine came under fire for burning the review that would have allowed them to escape with a one-run win on Sunday and retain the Ashes.

Paine conceded he’d had a “dabble” at the Decision Review System with Australia’s final review after an appeal for lbw against England No.11 Jack Leach when the home team needed eight runs to win. The ball from Pat Cummins was shown by the tracking technology to be clearly outside the line of leg stump and pitching outside leg as well. With no more reviews, it came back to bite them severely an over later when Nathan Lyon trapped England’s hero Ben Stokes on the pads and Australia could not refer Wilson’s not-out call. Hawk-Eye confirmed Stokes would have been out on review.

While Paine and Australia only had themselves to blame for the wasted review, Taylor believes the system itself is broken and in need of an overhaul because of the way teams use it tactically and speculatively.