Australia India Test

ROBBED debutant Ed Cowan has demanded video technology be made compulsory for umpires after Australia was gutted by howlers during the first Test against India at the MCG yesterday.

India's stone-age attitude to technology may have also cost Mike Hussey his career.

By stumps on the opening day Australia had scrambled to 6-277, largely thanks to home town hero Peter Siddle's rearguard 34 not out in front of more than 70,000 Boxing Day fans.

"I just don't understand why it can't be handed down by the ICC to be uniform," Cowan said of the umpire decision review system (DRS).

Asked if he hit his attempted cut Cowan replied: "You saw the replays, you saw my reaction, you can join the dots I guess."

Struggling Hussey went first ball for a duck and top-scorer Cowan was denied a possible debut century after he was fired for 68.

"No wonder the Indians don't like the DRS," Tony Greig exclaimed after replays showed that Hussey had clearly missed the ball.

"If we had been using it that decision would have been reviewed and reversed."

Hussey was given out by South African umpire Marais Erasmus fending at a short ball from Zaheer Khan, which left the left armer on a hat-trick, and English umpire Ian Gould sent Cowan packing after he attempted to cut off-spinner Ravi Ashwin.

Indian captain and wicket-keeper MS Dhoni led the raucous appeals against Hussey and Cowan.

In both cases slow-motion hot-spot replays, which show a mark on the bat where it has struck the ball, revealed nothing.

If either decision was made less than a fortnight ago during Australia's series against New Zealand it would have been reversed because the DRS was in operation.

India's unfathomable opposition to the DRS, embraced by every other Test nation, continues to make a mockery of international cricket.

The refusal to embrace technology is quite incredible given that when India was last in Australia four years ago the tourists melted down, forcing the ICC to sack umpire Steve Bucknor after losing the Sydney Test and threatening to quit the tour.

There is nothing to stop another meltdown this time given the DRS is not available to take the heat out of dodgy umpiring decisions against India batting stars, particularly Sachin Tendulkar as he strives for his 100th international century.

However Hussey is in danger of becoming the most immediate victim.

Since staring in Sri Lanka with a trifecta of man-of-the-match awards just three months ago, Hussey's form has fallen through the floor.

He has scored only 83 runs in his last five Tests, against South Africa, New Zealand and now India, at an average of nine.

The 36-year-old appears to have replaced Ricky Ponting, 37, as the man most likely to be chopped if the selectors decide to pick all-rounder Dan Christian for the second Test in Sydney, beginning in eight days.

Ponting made 62 yesterday, his third half century in four Tests, after a largely difficult two years which has seen him average better than 33 in just one of his past seven series.