Frank Duckworth, one of the co-inventors of the Duckworth-Lewis method used to determine outcomes in rain-affected cricket matches, passed away on June 21 at 84 years old.
Originally devised by English statisticians Duckworth and Tony Lewis, the method debuted in international cricket in 1997 and was formally adopted by the ICC in 2001 to set revised targets in shortened games. Following modifications by Australian statistician Steven Stern in 2014, it became known as the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method.
Duckworth and Lewis received MBEs in June 2010 for their contributions to cricket. The DL method replaced the rain rule, infamous from the 1992 ODI World Cup semi-final between England and South Africa in Sydney, which had previously determined targets in interrupted matches.
