Frank Duckworth, co-inventor of DLS method, dies

Frank Duckworth, one of the inventors of the Duckworth-Lewis (later Duckworth-Lewis-Stern) method to determine results in rain-affected cricket matches, died on June 21 at the age of 84.

The original method, devised by English statisticians Duckworth and Tony Lewis, was first used in international cricket in 1997 and was formally adopted by the ICC as the standard for setting revised targets in truncated games in 2001. In 2014, it was renamed the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method after the retirement of Duckworth and Lewis and the modifications made to the system by Australian statistician Steven Stern.

Duckworth and Lewis were both awarded MBEs in June 2010.

The DL method replaced the rain rule that was used previously to calculate targets in interrupted matches, most infamously during the 1992 ODI World Cup semi-final between England and South Africa in Sydney.