The mathematician Tony Lewis, who gave Duckworth-Lewis rule to the cricket world, has passed away on Wednesday. He was 78 years old. He, along with fellow mathematician Frank Duckworth, gave the Duckworth-Lewis formula in 1997 for a cricket match interrupted due to bad weather conditions. The method was adopted by the ICC from the 1999 World Cup played in England. “It is with much sadness that the ECB has learned of the passing of Tony Lewis MBE. Our thoughts are with Tony’s family” the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said on his twitter.

It is with much sadness that the ECB has learned of the passing of Tony Lewis MBE. Our thoughts are with Tony’s family.

— England and Wales Cricket Board (@ECB_cricket) April 2, 2020

Tony’s and Frank’s formulas also faced criticism at various times. Steven Stern, then an Australian mathematician, revised this formula according to the current scoring rate. Subsequently, this rule came to be called Duckworth-Lewis-Stern from 2014 (DLS Method).

After the 1992 World Cup, it was considered to implement the formula

After the semi-finals of England and South Africa in the 1992 World Cup, the formulation was considered. In this match, the chasing African team needed 22 runs off 13 balls to win. Meanwhile, the match was abandoned due to rain for some time. After this, the African players were surprised when the target of 21 runs on 1 ball was shown on the scorecard to win. The match was lost by Africa by 19 runs. Only then did the ICC consider designing the Duckworth-Lewis system.

Tony Lewis, the statistician who co-created the Duckworth-Lewis method, has died at the age of 78.https://t.co/tFuFfT0jl7 pic.twitter.com/B23zpdMOSz

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) April 2, 2020

How Results Declare before Duckworth-Lewis Method

Prior to this formula, the ICC rules only looked at the team’s run average. That is, the team in the match who scored more than the average during the rainy season declared as the winner. In this old rule, falling wickets were not taken care of. Whereas the Duckworth-Lewis rule takes into account the run average and wicket of both the teams in the overs till rain-interrupted the match.