Sri Lanka spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan says umpires have to use technology on low catches rather than taking the word of the player.

Muralitharan’s Melbourne Renegades’ teammate Jos Buttler was at the centre of controversy in Sunday night’s opening one-day international clash at the MCG.

England wicketkeeper Buttler claimed a low catch off Australia batsman David Warner and Warner was happy to go after Buttler indicated the ball had carried.

However, the on-field umpires referred the incident to third umpire Kumar Dharmasena.

The Sri Lankan official viewed video footage before instructing his colleagues to recall Warner, who by this stage was near the boundary rope where he’d been told to wait.

“You can’t take the word, because at the moment everyone is very, very competitive,” Test cricket’s record wicket-taker Muralitharan told reporters on Monday.

“They are not cheating but almost everyone feels that I took the catch. But sometimes that’s not the case.

“If the umpire thinks it’s the right way going with the technology, so you go with the technology.

“Taking the word, sometimes people will honestly say yes. Sometimes you take a catch and sometimes it happens.

“You also don’t know if you’ve caught it or not because you feel like you’ve caught it, but in the end, sometimes you’ve missed it.

“So you have to go by the technology.”

Warner was on 22 at the time, while Australia were 0-82 chasing 270 for victory.

The reprieve allowed the home side to add 163 for the first wicket before Warner was out for 65.

Australia went on to reach their target with six wickets and 26 deliveries to spare to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match ODI series.

Alastair Cook said the incident had come at a crucial time in the match.

“I thought it was a pretty clean catch,” the England skipper said.

“It hit his fingers and it bounced up.

“I only saw it a couple of times on the big screen. I thought it was a wrong decision.”

Warner’s Australia ODI teammate Glenn Maxwell also felt England were unlucky.

“I think Davey was pretty convinced he was out,” Maxwell told reporters.

“He was about a metre away from jumping over the rope.”

Maxwell says it’s a grey area in the game.

“If you take the fielder’s word and the batter’s happy to go, I think that’s where it should be left,” he said.

“If the batter wants to stay, I think that’s when it should go up there (to the third umpire).

“It looked like it was probably out to me.”