'Confirming score reason for delay'

International Cricket Council match referee Mike Procter has accepted full responsibility for the delay in the announcement of West Indies' revised target in yesterday's decisive Cable & Wireless One-Day International against India.

West Indies' pursuit of 261 in 49 overs was halted after 1.5 overs by a 20-minute stoppage for rain, but when play resumed, their amended target was not forthcoming for about another 20 minutes when it was pointed out that the home team would have to score 248 in 44 overs.

Procter explained after the match, which India eventually won by 56 runs at the Queen's Park Oval, that computer problems and a one-run difference with a manual calculation led to the delay.

"I take full responsibility for any blame, but I delayed that decision because I wanted to make sure that the 248 or 247 or 249 was right," Procter said. "In my opinion, it was worth waiting to get the right score because it was at the start of the innings. They were bowled out for miles less than 248 as it turned out."

Proctor explained that the revised Duckworth/Lewis calculation would usually have been provided by computer programme.

"We had a disc. We were going to rely on a computer upstairs, but the disc didn't seem to work," he said.

"The third umpire did it manually. Then we had a message that the computer did work and scores differed by one run. I wanted to try and make sure it was right."