'It's not working': Aussie legend calls for change amid Ashes 'disgrace'

Mark Taylor has called for major change to the way DRS is used following the umpiring dramas that have plagued the Ashes.

After a string of incorrect calls throughout the first three Tests, the drama came to a head when Ben Stokes was wrongly given not out just one over before hitting the winning runs at Headingley.

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Replays showed Stokes should have been out lbw, but the Aussies had already burned their two reviews and couldn’t use DRS.

Joel Wilson, who failed to raise the finger and give Stokes out, also tied the world record with eight overturned decisions in the first Test.

The ongoing farce has been described as a ‘disgrace’ and ‘embarrassment’ by fans, but according to Taylor its the system that has failed, not the umpires.

“The DRS is not working,” he said on Sports Sunday.

“I’ve always maintained that players should not be involved in umpiring.

“Obviously it’s going against Australia at the moment but it’s also undermining umpires.

‘The umpiring in this series has been poor but their confidence is totally shot.”

ICC switches umpires in late change for fourth Test

Kumar Dharmasena will help control the fourth Ashes Test from the middle, rather than the third-umpire room, in a late change to arrangements for the high-stakes match.

Marais Erasmus and Ruchira Palliyaguruge, who isn't on the International Cricket Council's elite panel, had been originally slated to umpire the Old Trafford contest that begins on Wednesday.

But Palliyaguruge is listed to remain as third umpire for the rest of the five-Test series, which is locked at 1-1.

It means Erasmus and Dharmasena, two of the most-experienced umpires on the circuit, will be standing in the middle for the rest of the series.

The standard of umpiring has been a constant talking point in this Ashes.

Ricky Pointing has led calls for the ICC to let Australian and English umpires, who represent more than half of the elite panel, officiate in the showpiece series.

But the powerful Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) insists neutral Test umpiring is still the best way forward.

with AAP