Frank Duckworth, co-inventor of DLS method, passes away

Frank Duckworth, one of the inventors of the Duckworth-Lewis method (now known as the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method), has passed away at the age of 84. Duckworth is believed to have breathed his last in the early hours of June 21. 

Duckworth, an English statistician, co-founded the Duckworth–Lewis method along with fellow statistician Tony Lewis, to determine results in rain-affected cricket matches. 

The Duckworth-Lewis method was first used on January 1, 1997, during the Zimbabwe versus England ODI series, where Zimbabwe won the second ODI of the three-match series, in Harare, by seven runs. It was later adopted by the ICC in 1999 as the standard method for calculating target scores in rain-affected one-day matches.

Australian statistician Steven Stern became the custodian of the method in 2014, after the retirement of both Duckworth and Lewis, due to which the method was renamed to its current title (Duckworth-Lewis-Stern). Stern, in 2014, refined the model to account for current scoring trends, resulting in the birth of the DLS method.

In June 2010, both Duckworth and Lewis were awarded MBEs, a British order of chivalry that rewards individuals’ contributions to arts and sciences.