Player tweets add heat to controversy

England players Stuart Broad and Alex Hales have taken to social media to express their frustration over Hales' controversial dismissal on day one of the fourth Test against Pakistan at The Oval.

Hales was furious after he was given out to a low catch off Mohammad Amir early in England's first innings, shaking his head and uttering some choice words as he walked off the ground.

A diving Yasir Shah had claimed the catch and didn't hesitate in celebrating but the England opener stood his ground. Australian umpire Bruce Oxenford's 'soft' decision was out though he referred it to the third umpire Joel Wilson to confirm.

In the absence of a close-up of the incident, umpire Wilson, whose voice as he came to his verdict was audible through the television commentary, said "there's not enough evidence to suggest the catch is either clear or not clean" and advised Oxenford to stick with his original decision.

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Broad was straight on Twitter after play, questioning Dean Wilson, the cricket correspondent for English newspaper The Daily Mirror, about an earlier tweet announcing the dismissal of Hales.

While television replays had indeed failed to get a closer view replay of the catch, Hales also opted to voice his opinion on social media in response to Broad, attaching a zoomed-in picture, inferring the ball had touched the ground before Yasir could get his hands around it.

Hales, who was out for six, has had a poor series thus far, passing 50 just once in seven innings and failing to nail down his spot at the top of the order.

While disciplinary action for cricketers as a result of social media posts is far from uncommon, it remains to be seen whether either player will be reprimanded by the ICC; the governing body could construe the tweets as a violation of Article 2.1.3 of the ICC Code of Conduct, which relates to 'public criticism of the umpire's performance'.

The fresh controversy comes a day after the England captain Alastair Cook rubbished claims from a Pakistan television program that his side were involved in ball tampering during the previous Test at Edgbaston.

"The way both sides have played, there have been little flash-points but we've been talking about cricket for three Test matches, which is the first time (that's happened) in a series I've played in against Pakistan," Cook said yesterday.

"Hopefully we'll be talking about cricket at the end of this next Test."

Hales meanwhile has been particularly active on social media of late, after he refunded an irate England fan 10 per cent of the price of his ticket after complaints about the team's slow over rate during the third Test against Pakistan in Birmingham.

The 27-year-old transferred £4.10 ($7) into Alexis Fuller's bank account as a partial refund on the £41 ($70) he had paid for his ticket.

"That was all in good spirits," Hales said. "I saw the tweet and it made me chuckle and he had a point as well.

"I didn't think I'd get a response, but when he did it I thought I better go through with it.

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"He sent me his details and I thought I better do the right thing. I might have crumbled with 20,000 more tweets but it was in good spirits, a bit of fun."

England, led by Moeen Ali's superb 108, fought to 328 in their first-innings before Broad made a late breakthrough to reduce Pakistan to 1-3 at stumps.