The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced yesterday that it was sticking with the Duckworth/Lewis (D/L) rule for deciding rain-affected matches after an Indian engineer put forward a replacement method.
Devised by English statisticians Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis, the D/L rule was first introduced at international level in 1996.u00a0V Jayadevan, an engineer in the south Indian state of Kerala, has spent a decade working on his so-called VJD system. This has been used in Indian domestic matches since 2007 following a recommendation from batting great Sunil Gavaskar. Jayadevan argued his system should be adopted internationally, because the D/L method often produced targets that were “not reasonable or sensible”.
Cricket Committee chief Clive Lloyd
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But the ICC’s cricket committee, at a meeting in London this week, decided to stick with the present system. A statement issued on behalf of the committee, chaired by former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd, said it had considered Jayadevan’s method in great detail but added: “The committee unanimously agreed that there was no evidence of any significant flaws in the D/L method nor did the committee believe that any improvements could be offered by the VJD method.”
The committee, which only makes recommendations to the ICC’s main board, due to meet later this month, also called for the end of the bowling powerplay in one-day internationals. Instead they said the standard 10-over fielding restrictions at the start of each innings should be retained, followed by one five-over powerplay, at the batting side’s discretion, by the 40th over. A maximum of four fielders outside the 30-yard ring during non-powerplay overs is also recommended, down from five at present.
Fast bowlers would be allowed to bowl two bouncers per over instead of one. The committee reiterated its view that, depending on the ability to finance the technology, the Decision Review System (DRS) should be implemented “universally” in Test and ODI cricket. Indian cricket chiefs have yet to be convinced by the accuracy of the technology and so the system is not used in matches involving India.
Key points
>> ICC World Twenty20 being held every two years and continues to be joint men’s and women’s events with 16 men's teams from 2014
>> A prototype sensor to determine illegal bowling actions. The next phase will involve further development
>> No change in current regulations on switch hit and reverse sweep shots which was endorsed in 2009
>> ICC to consider day-night Tests in a bilateral series if both countries agree. Trials at domestic level
>> To further improve over-rates, there will be no drinks break other than the official ones and to resume play as soon as possible following referralsu00a0
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