Frank Duckworth, one of the inventors of the Duckworth-Lewis (later Duckworth-Lewis-Stern) rule, died on Friday, June 21, at the age of 84. The Duckworth-Lewis method is used to find the results of matches interrupted by rain or any other reason. The method was invented by English statisticians Duckworth and Tony Lewis and was first used in international cricket in 1997. After this, in the year 2001, it was formally adopted by the ICC to set revised targets. It was renamed the Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method in 2014 following the retirement of Duckworth and Lewis and modifications to the system by Australian statistician Steven Stern. Both Duckworth and Lewis were awarded the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in June 2010. Frank Duckworth breathed his last on 21 June and on the same day Australia beat Bangladesh by 28 runs using the DLS method.
The DL system replaced the rain rule, which was previously used to count goals in interrupted matches. But there was a lot of controversy over this rule and the controversy over the rain rule during the ODI World Cup semi-final between England and South Africa in Sydney in 1992 made many headlines and soon after the semi-final match of the ODI World Cup in Sydney in 1992. A new rule was speaking. Let us tell you that Duckworth was a consultant statistician of ICC till 2014.
We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Frank Duckworth MBE, co-inventor of the Duckworth-Lewis method for cricket and a much-loved RSS colleague.
Editor of RSS News for 20 years and recipient of our Chambers Medal, he will be greatly missed. https://t.co/DlDr15Aq12 pic.twitter.com/U93Y9qjhSP
– Royal Statistical Society (@RoyalStatSoc) June 25, 2024
“Frank was a top statistician who was respected by his peers as well as the wider cricket community. The DLS methodology he co-developed has stood the test of time,” ICC General Manager – Cricket Operations, Wasim Khan said in a press statement. Frank’s contribution to international cricket is immense and our condolences go out to his family and friends.
Learn how the Duckworth-Lewis method works
The DLS (Duckworth-Lewis-Stern) method works on the principle that a batting team has two resources when starting an ODI innings: 300 balls and ten wickets. As the innings progresses, these resources diminish and finally reach zero when the team either plays all 300 balls or loses all 10 wickets. When, for any reason, the batting team loses an over, they do not get a chance to fully utilize their resources. So the goals are modified in a way that is proportional to the amount of resources available to each team.
The rate of depletion of these resources is not uniform across overs, but varies depending on the ODI scoring pattern (estimated from a study of matches over several years). At any given time, the resources lost due to interruption depend on: the number of overs lost, the stage of the innings when the overs were lost, the number of wickets in hand at the time of the interruption.
If a team loses an over in the early stages of the innings, it does not have the same impact as if it loses an over at the end of the innings because the last overs of the innings can be big in terms of runs or wickets and teams have the target again if the overs are lost early in the innings. Chances of capture are low. For example, a team that has lost six wickets after 20 overs has less to lose from the interruption of the next 10 overs than a team that is only two wickets behind at that stage. This is because in the first case, the team has lost a large part of its batting resources by dismissing the top six batsmen. A team that has lost just two wickets can take better advantage of the last 30 overs than a team that is six wickets down. However, the system does not take into account specific batsmen who are actually out, or who are yet to bat.
Furthermore, according to DLS, a team exhausts all its resources when it is dismissed, or when it plays its full quota of overs. In such a situation, according to the rules, a score of 300 runs in 48 overs is equal to a score of 300 runs for 6 wickets in 50 overs (in a 50-over game). However, the number of wickets lost at the break, the fewer wickets lost, the higher the opportunity cost of lost overs for the batting team. A team losing just three wickets after 40 overs can score more than a team losing eight wickets and this is reflected in the targets set by DLS.
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