Cricket's Historians

306 Appendix Two Statistics in the Computer Age needed to understand how in practice these two constraints operated. This required substantial quantities of source data, which fortunately for them had just started to become accessible online through ball-by-ball records of recent limited overs matches. With this data they created a series of tables that described how on average teams tended to marshal their twin resources (remaining overs and wickets). Thus when an interruption occurred, they could adjust the target score by an amount that reflected the resources lost, thereby maintaining the size of the advantage held by the ‘winning’ team. The Duckworth Lewis method, subsequently known simply as D/L was scrutinised by ECB and ICC, before being used for the first time in an ODI at the start of 1997. As more data was collected, the formula was refined, with a more sophisticated version being launched for professional cricket in 2003 which would run only on a computer, rather than using look-up tables. As with player ratings, others put forward their versions, but none has yet eclipsed the D/L method. In 2001, ICC adopted it as the required standard for international cricket and it has since been used at domestic level across the world. Their eponymous creators received MBEs in 2010 for “services to Mathematics and to Cricket”.