I can't pick up a paper, turn on the TV or listen to the radio without having to hear about the Australian finale of Master Chef, and quite frankly I'm sick of it. As an Aussie I have far bigger issues to deal with, like the daylight robbery currently being committed against our cricket team in England.

The second Ashes test being played at Lords has been punctuated by one umpiring blunder after the other. While Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin have put Australia within striking distance going into the last day of play, England are just another dodgy umpiring decision away from taking the win.

When Clarke and Haddin got together the score was 5 for 128. Not a good looking score card, and even worse when you consider that 3 of those 5 wickets should never have been given out.

Exhibit A: Simon Katich

Simon Katich is given out off what is clearly a no ball. Andrew Flintoff clearly over stepped the mark, the umpire missed it, game over for Katich. In fairness it was probably a poor shot for Katich to have played, but still, there's no way he should have been given out.

Exhibit B: Phil Hughes

Phil Hughes edged a ball to slip, at which point England captain, Andrew Strauss claimed a "dubious" catch. By dubious, I think the commentators meant, "the ball hit the ground before it was picked up by Strauss". The replay really tells the story. Rather than refer the decision to the third umpire, as happened in England's innings, and after some argy bargry, the umpires decided they'd just send Hughes on his way. Bottom line, terrible decision and terribly inconsistent piece of umpiring.

Exhibit C: Mike Hussey

If there's ever a batsmen that needs a bit of luck to go his way it's Mike Hussey. I'm not sure that there is a batsman going around at the moment that can stake a claim to Hussey's title of "Batsman dismissed most due to umpire error".

In his latest stroke of bad luck, Hussey was given out caught behind even though he didn't touch the ball with his bat. Countless replays, using all the technology at hand, super slo-mo, "Hot spot" and "Snicko", showed the same thing. Hussey's bat hit the ground, while the ball skidded through without hitting anything.

Thankfully Clarke and Haddin made it through to the end of the day's play and gave the Aussies a fighting chance. I'll be tuning in tonight to watch the conclusion, but I hope that the outcome is decided by the players and not by dodgy umpiring decisions.