The Man Behind the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern Method: Tony Lewis

The man behind the method of Duckworth-Lewis-Stern, which is used in weather-afflicted limited-overs matches Tony Lewis has passed away at the age of 78. On Wednesday (01-04-2020), the England and Wales Cricket Board declared his dismissal.

They quoted “With much grief, ECB is announcing the death of Tony Lewis MBE at the age of 78.”

In the year 1997, with his associate mathematician Frank Duckworth, Tony find out the Duckworth-Lewis formula, which was officially accepted in the year 1999 by the International Cricket Council (ICC) ”

“ Further this method was renamed in the year 2014 and the mathematical formula is used in the rain reduced limited-overs match all over the world.”

Lewis also got a career academic award of MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) for his extraordinary service to cricket as well as mathematics in the year 2010.

ECB also said “ The world of cricket is grateful to both Frank and Tony’s contribution to cricket. and we send our deep condolences to the family of Tony.”

The Story Behind Revision Of The Mathematical Formula:

The mathematical formula was used first time in the unusual ending of a rain- disturbed World-Cup semi-final match in Sydney in 1992.

After that, the formula was utilized based upon eliminating the lowest scoring overs from the innings of the two teams.

But it created a nonsensical conclusion to a semi-final cricket match when the team of South Africa, who faced the testing but possible target of 22 runs off 13 balls to defeat the team of England, whereas England was left with an unachievable target of 21 runs off the single ball after delay due to rain.

Then Duckworth with his fellow statistician Steven Stern revised the mathematical formula after so many years. He said, “On the radio, I heard the sayings of commentator Christopher Martin-Jenkins that ‘definitely somewhere, someone should come with the more improved option’ and I realized that it was a mathematical problem that needed a mathematical solution.”

The huge diversity between the previous formulas and Duckworth-Lewis methods was that it gave more chances to the defending team for taking wickets and chasing teams to score more runs.

And finally, the D/L method became a well-known method on scoreboards of cricket all over the world.