During the recently played T20 World Cup, two things were mentioned a lot – rain and the DLS system. Along with these, the name of Frank Duckworth also came into discussion. What is the relationship between these three? The DLS system, which is currently used in limited overs cricket to get a clear result of a match affected by rain or any other reason, to set a new target, is the gift of this Frank Duckworth. Rain and this system were in discussion, coincidentally during this time Frank Duckworth died at the age of 84. Tony Lewis passed away in 2020 at the age of 78.

Duckworth thought of the method of calculation but his first partner in converting it into a formula to be applied correctly in the match was Tony Lewis and thus began that famous partnership. Then it was Duckworth & Lewis Method. The third name was added many years later and it is the current custodian of this system, Steven Stern.

(Steven Stern). With time and seeing the problems faced during the matches, Duckworth and Lewis kept on changing their method of finding this new target, but with increasing age, and to make it suitable for T20 along with ODI, they needed help which they got from Stern. In this way it became Duckworth, Lewis and Stern Method, which is misspelled everywhere as Duckworth, Lewis and Stern System or DLS System.

His method of calculation almost ended the disputes over the new target in the limited overs cricket matches that were halted midway. This method was calculated for the first time in international cricket in 1997 but ICC approved its use in all international cricket in 2001. In the eyes of ICC, his method of calculation is one of the biggest contributions to cricket by anyone. A lot of brain was used in making the calculation formula but who are all these people and how much do they know about cricket? The answer to this question is very interesting on one hand and will also surprise you. Believe me, Frank Duckworth, who thought about it first, was neither a cricketer nor a great expert on cricket.

Frank was an English statistician – a member of the Royal Statistical Society (RSS). A bulletin was published to give information about the work done in this society and he was the editor of this bulletin called RSS News. And see – he had a degree in metallurgy. Later he qualified as a statistician. All this had nothing to do with cricket. He was just a little fond of cricket.

In 1992, at a conference of the Royal Statistical Society in Sheffield, he presented a small research paper titled 'A fair result in foul weather'. It mentioned what happened in the 1992 World Cup semi-final between England and South Africa in Australia. A short spell of rain spoiled the target for South Africa in such a way that the number of runs in the target remained 22 – the number of balls reduced from 13 to 1. This was called 'cheating'. Duckworth had done some calculations on this in that research paper.

Tony Lewis also read this research paper. Cricket was definitely Lewis's passion. He played but much below the county cricket level. He took a mathematics degree from Sheffield University and studied even after that and learnt statistics. Thus he knew both cricket and mathematics. In 1995, he became Duckworth's partner in converting what he had written into a method of calculation. For many years it was misunderstood that this was the same Tony Lewis who was England's Test captain earlier. The method that these two found together was first given to the Test and County Cricket Board (this was the name of the English board then).

Frustrated with the controversy over rainy matches, the Board introduced it into the English cricket season and it was first used on an experimental basis on 1 January 1997 in the second match of England's ODI series against Zimbabwe at Harare – a major test of their new method of setting targets.

Zimbabwe scored 200 runs in the first innings. Then it rained and the books only tell that after calculations in this manner, England was given a target of 186 runs in 42 overs to win – they could score only 179 runs and lost. Believe me, a huge scam took place in implementing this method – those who did the calculations did not understand the method correctly. There was a newspaper report and Wisden also wrote in its 1998 annual that England was given a target of 185 to win. Actually, in this method, calculation is done on the required score and if you want to win, you need one run more than that – here, on calculation of 185, the target was given as 185 runs only. Later the mistake was corrected.

Look at the score card of this match on different portals – somewhere the margin of victory will be written as 6 runs and somewhere as 7 runs. This is also the result of this misunderstanding. Another interesting thing – then there was a big uproar in England over this method because this method of calculation was responsible for England's defeat. When the target in that match was calculated according to the method prevailing at that time, it was 168 and according to that, England had won the match. It was their luck that they survived – how? This is a different story.

The general report was that it was a simple and accurate method – no need to look at the charts of previous run rates or do any new calculations. The new target was determined by the count of overs and wickets left, and nothing more than a pocket calculator with a chart was needed. It was officially implemented in international cricket in 2001. Since then, the same method has been used till 2024. Meanwhile, despite the calculations made using this method, there are many interesting stories of matches being stopped midway.

Yet, we must mention one more thing which is rarely read anywhere – Duckworth had written this in one of his non-cricket articles. When he, along with Lewis, gave his method of calculation to TCCB, TCCB asked him to give a name to this method so that just by the name it can be understood what method is being talked about. Now everyone knows that this name was – Duckworth and Lewis Method, but the truth is that at that time the suggestion was not of this name.

Duckworth and Lewis named it 'Waikiki Formula' – in fact, when Duckworth was on a holiday in Hawaii, he first faxed the calculations of his method to Lewis, who lived in Bristol. He considered this to be the birth of this 'partnership'. TCCB did not like this name because it reflected a place famous for fun. The new suggestion was 'Lancashire Method' because both of them were from the same county – albeit from different places. TCCB felt that with this name, they would always be promoting a county. Other names came up but no consensus was reached on any of them and under compulsion, it was named Duckworth and Lewis Method.