Jonathan Trott
Reuters

England have received apologies from the International Cricket Council and Hot Spot inventor Warren Brennan following the controversial first ball dismissal of Jonathan Trott on day two of the first Ashes Test against Australia at Trent Bridge.

Umpire Alleem Dar had originally adjudged the LBW appeal by seamer Mitchell Starc to be not out but the decision was reversed by third umpire Marais Erasmus upon an Australian referral.

While hawk-eye and a front-on view of hot spot suggested the decision should be overturned, the crucial side-on view of the thermal image technology was unavailable due to a technical error.

Erasmus overturned the decision to the bemusement of both Dar and Trott and appeared to be at odds with television replays which indicated the ball had ricocheted into the England batsman's pads.

With all the technology not available to the third umpire, England coach Andy Flower sought clarification from match referee Ranjan Madugalle regarding the decision which left the hosts 11 for 2.

ICC chief executive Dave Richardson has reportedly since apologised to England and Wales Cricket Board chairman Giles Clarke for Erasmus' error. The ICC will not be publically commenting on the decision review system until the end of the Ashes series.

The pivotal hot spot angle was unavailable as it was being used to re-run the dismissal of Joe Root the previous ball. The 22 year old opted against referring the decision, after he appeared to feather Starc down the leg-side into the gloves of wicket-keeper Brad Haddin, but replays suggest he would have survived.

The inventor of hot spot, Brennan, has issued an additional apology to England claiming an "operator error" created the issue.

"Here is the absolute truth from our perspective in regard to the Trott incident," Brennan wrote to Cricinfo.

"It was operator error. My operator did not trigger the system in order to cater for the Trott delivery. Instead the operator sat on the Root delivery in order to offer a replay from the previous ball and did not realise until it was too late that he should have triggered the system for the Trott delivery as the priority.

"Simple mistake, something that anyone could have made but my Hot Spot operator has worked on the system since 2007 and to my knowledge this is the first serious mistake he has made."

The decision could prove crucial come the end of the test match. The dismissal left England two wickets down and still 54 runs short of Australia's first innings total of 280, which was boosted by Ashton Agar scoring a brilliant 98, the highest total by a No.11 batsman in test history, during a record-breaking 10<sup>th wicket stand of 163 with Phil Hughes.

Captain Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen steered England to 80 for 2 at the close, 14 runs ahead with eight second innings wickets in hand ahead of day three in Nottingham, but the nature of the end of Trott's innings still pains the home side.

"It's very frustrating," James Anderson said. "Trott has hit the ball and been given not out. He did hit it. It is frustrating that it got overturned.

"We're all for technology because, since it came in, more decisions have been given out correctly than wrongly, so we want it."

Australia