Crowe holds his hands up

World Cup match referee Jeff Crowe took responsibility for the "human error" and confusion which meant the final was won 'twice' by Australia and ended in farcical scenes at Kensington Oval.

Australia celebrated their victory - and a record third successive Cup crown - only to be told by umpires Steve Bucknor and Aleem Dar that they must go back on the field to bowl three more overs in near darkness against a Sri Lanka team who had accepted there was no longer any way they could win.

"In all hindsight, I should have known the rules and said the game had been called off," said Crowe. "It's a human error, I guess. There is a lot of talking going on the audio system on the field and our room."

Captains Ricky Ponting and Mahela Jayawardene agreed to bowl only slow bowlers and pat back the ball, before Australia were declared winners all over again - by 53 runs on the Duckworth-Lewis method.

The teams agreed to start playing again only after the umpires had told them, in error, that if they did not they would have to come back on the reserve day to complete a match already reduced to 38-overs-per-side because of rain.

Crowe added: "The scoreboard had put it up, and I guess the problem was we hadn't had contact with them; they just assumed too that was the result - and put it up.

"For me the real confusion has come from the fact we were talking about resuming the game on Sunday - which was very wrong."