The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Friday released the updated version of the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) system along with the new ICC code of conduct and playing conditions.
These rules will come into effect from Sunday, when the first One-Day International (ODI) between South Africa and Zimbabwe will be played in Kimberley.
This is the third version, but the second update of the DLS system since its introduction into international cricket in 2014 and has been carried out following a detailed ball-by-ball analysis of scoring patterns, including in the powerplays, in all limited overs internationals played during the previous four years.
This means that the current analysis is based on information from 700 ODIs and 428 Twenty 20 Internationals (T20Is), which comprise over 240,000 outcomes of individual deliveries.
The latest analysis revealed that the teams have been able to extend their acceleration patterns for longer periods, and the average scores in ODIs have continued to increase. This means that par score calculations will assume that teams will be able to score a slightly higher proportion of their runs towards the end of an innings.
In finalising the updated version, the scoring patterns between ODI (final 20 overs) and T20 were analysed, as well as the scoring patterns between men's and women's international matches.
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The study confirmed that in both cases, while overall scoring rates are obviously different, wicket-adjusted resource utilisation rates are essentially identical. As such, it has again been confirmed that a single version of the DLS system is compatible with all formats.
Meanwhile, the ICC also introduced new offences and the change in level of some existing offences in the ICC code of conduct for players and player support personnel, which will also come into effect from Sunday. These were approved by the ICC Board during the Dublin Annual Conference on July 2.
The maximum sanction for a Level 3 offence has been increased from eight suspension points to 12 suspension points (equivalent to 6 Test matches or 12 ODIs). Match referees will now hear Level 1, 2 and 3 charges with a Judicial Commissioner only hearing Level 4 charges and appeals.
With the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 less than a year away, the ICC has not made any major changes to the existing playing conditions. There are only a couple of minor tweaks, which are:
Clauses 11.4 (ODI), 11.7 and 12.8 (Tests) - allows a match to be concluded before a scheduled interval. Clause 19 (Test, ODI and T20I) - Unless the boundary is the maximum 90 yards from the centre of the pitch, the boundary rope cannot be any more than 10 yards from the edge of the available playing area.