Darren Campbell refused to blame Mark Lewis-Francis after defending champions England crashed out of the 4x100 metres relay in the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

Marlon Devonish and Lewis-Francis failed to exchange the baton on the final takeover after Lewis-Francis set off too early.

It summed up a disastrous Games for the sprinters with only Devonish making the 100m final - he finished last - and no British representative in the 200m final for the first time since 1966.

Lewis-Francis was also disqualified from the heats of the 100m for a false start, Campbell disqualified from the 200m for running outside his lane, and Christian Malcolm and Jason Gardener flew home early through injury.

"We messed up," admitted Campbell, one of three Olympic relay gold medallists in the quartet. "At the end of the day it doesn't really matter if he (Lewis-Francis) went early or not. We are a team.

"That's life, we've had six years of success since 2000 when we messed up and the law of averages say we are going to mess up. We know we are going to get slated, we accept it."

It is not the first time there have been such problems in the 4x100m relay.

Britain blew medal chances in the 2000 Olympics and 2001 World Championships by failing to get the baton round safely, and when they did win silver in 2003 in Paris, were later stripped of their medals due to the subsequent positive drugs test of Dwain Chambers.