Frank Duckworth, whose mathematical expertise transformed rain-affected cricket, has passed away at the age of 84. Born in Lytham, Duckworth co-created the Duckworth-Lewis method with Tony Lewis, a fellow Lancastrian. This method recalculates scores in limited-over matches interrupted by weather conditions.
Rob Eastaway, a fellow statistician, announced Duckworth's death and described him as "a very genial man" who took pride in the method despite its complexity confounding casual fans. Eastaway noted that although many claims not to understand it, they recognise its effectiveness.
Duckworth, a graduate of King Edward VII School in Lytham and the University of Liverpool, spent his entire career in the nuclear industry. Initially employed as a metallurgist, he demonstrated a knack for extracting valuable information from extensive numerical data. His interest in statistics led him to become a statistician, and he was elected a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society in 1974. At the society's 1992 conference, he presented a paper proposing a formula for correcting targets in rain-interrupted one-day cricket matches.
This proposal led him to collaborate with Tony Lewis, a mathematics lecturer, who suggested analysing one-day score sheets using Duckworth's formula. Their method emerged following the controversial 1992 Cricket World Cup semi-final between England and South Africa. A rain delay left South Africa needing 22 runs from 13 balls, but the existing recalculation method, which was based on productive overs, unfairly required them to score 22 runs off one delivery upon resumption.
Duckworth recalled hearing BBC Test Match Special commentator Christopher Martin-Jenkins express frustration over the flawed method, prompting him to develop a mathematical solution. The Duckworth-Lewis method calculates the required runs by considering the remaining overs and wickets, unlike previous methods that only considered runs and overs.
First implemented in the ICC Trophy in Malaysia in 1997, the method was adopted internationally by the International Cricket Council for the 1999 World Cup in England and became the permanent solution in 2004. It was later updated by Australian statistician Professor Steven Stern to account for modern scoring trends and T20 cricket, and it is now known as the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method.
Duckworth received an honorary doctorate from the University of Bath in 2015, acknowledging his contributions to both cricket and the nuclear industry. The citation highlighted his role in ensuring reactor safety through statistics and convincing his colleagues of their importance, a principle he also applied to cricket.
Eastaway mentioned that despite Duckworth's prowess with numbers, he had a lighter side. He recalled a humorous anecdote following Tony Lewis's death in 2020 when Duckworth remarked that people thought he was already dead, likening the pair to a comedy duo with Lewis as the straight man and Duckworth as the jovial one.
Frank Duckworth leaves behind a widow, whom he married in 1969, a daughter, and two grandsons.