CRICKIPEDIA
The alternative compendium of cricket
Words James Wallace
Judge
Nickname for ex-England and Hampshire batter Robin Smith. Because his cut shot was so ferocious it sounded like the crack of a gavel in the uncompromising hand of the law? Nope. Because his crinkly hair resembled a judge’s wig. Guilty!
Jayadevan’s system
There are few things we can be certain of in these turbulent times – the rising and setting of the sun perhaps, death and taxes at a push? During the English cricket season you can bet your life it will rain. Other sports have their own methods of dealing with the wet stuff. At Wimbledon, for example, they used to wheel out Cliff Richard for a sing-song while some kids in shorts battled with tarpaulin on Centre Court. They later replaced this system by building a roof, which made more sense. No such luck in cricket, where the game is perhaps uniquely beholden to the elements. In the event of rain in a limited-overs match, the Duckworth- Lewis-Stern method is used to calculate a revised total for the batting side to chase. But there is competition, in the form of Jayadevan’s system, also known as the VJD variant, which sounds a bit like something you might get after eating some bad beef in the 90s. Don’t ask me how Jayadevan’s system differs, to dig into it would melt brains and scupper word counts. It just does, and isn’t as popular or as good as DLS. Think Betamax vs VHS or Wings vs The Beatles.