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Indra may be the god of rains but for followers of cricket, a ‘holy’ trinity presides over rainfall during matches – Duckworth, Lewis and Sterns.
The same ‘DLS’ threat looms large over the semifinal of the ICC World Cup between India and New Zealand, after play was deferred to the reserve day following incessant rains on Tuesday, 9 July.
The forecast for Wednesday – with a high chance of persistent rain spells – will surely complicate the crucial game of cricket further.
Cricket, a sport so simple that even Bhuvan's team mastered it in 3 months and beat the English at their own game. #TeenGunaLagaan.
But there’s one aspect of this simple sport that, perhaps, nobody quite understands. Not the cricketers, not the pundits and most probably you don’t either – the Duckworth-Lewis-Sterns (DLS) Method.
With World Cup 2019 being the rainiest of all since the first edition in 1975, there was always a good chance that we would see DLS in action again. It has already been employed once in the India vs Pakistan match on 16 June and will most likely come into play in the first semifinal as well.
But what many may not know is that an alternate method, developed independently by an engineer from Kerala, has been around since 1999. #MakeInIndia
A homegrown desi system, the VJD Method, designed by V Jayadevan from Thrissur, has been demonstrated to be more accurate than DLS.
How Did Jayadevan Come up with The Method ?
“It was so accidental that one of my friends requested me to teach him the FORTRAN programming language. So I took this problem, means setting a target score. But at that time I did not take it that seriously,” Jayadevan told The Quint.
He recalls that in 1999 two articles appeared in The Hindu. One was on the merits of the Duckworth-Lewis method and the other on its demerits. “When I saw the second one, I realised my method has certain advantages over the Duckworth and Lewis method. From that point, I took it seriously,” he added.
So, How Has ICC Responded to the VJD Method ?
“Yes, ICC was very unfair to me in this matter. Right from 2000 I have been asking ICC to give me a chance to make a presentation in front of the cricketing committee,” Jaydevan said.
“I was not asking them to implement my method or replace the Duckworth-Lewis method but just give me a chance and listen to what I have to say. But they’ve always denied me with some lame excuses,” he added.
How Has ICC Reacted to The Drawbacks in the DLS Method ?
Jayadevan said that for almost 10 years, he would identify the drawbacks of the Duckworth-Lewis method every time they revised it and send it to the ICC. The governing body would then rectify them in the next version.
“But, when they rectified that, some other problem would emerge in another area. So, I would again write to the ICC. So, ICC was using me as a free tool to find out the mistakes of the Duckworth-Lewis system,” Jayadevan told The Quint.
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