Wright, M B (2004) A rich model for scheduling umpires for an amateur cricket league. Working Paper. The Department of Management Science, Lancaster University.
Abstract
This paper describes a problem faced every year by the Devon Cricket League in England. Every league match requires two officiating umpires. There are various rules relating to the deployment of umpires, and rather more preferences to be considered which fall short of being definite constraints. The requirement was to produce a computer system which would allocate umpires in a satisfactory manner without the need for human interaction, since the users of the system will be unqualified amateurs. This necessitated the construction of a "rich" model incorporating several solution attributes of various types. This paper describes this model in detail, together with the solution procedure, a form of metaheuristic search known as subcost-guided simulated annealing. The system has been put into successful use for the 2003 and 2004 seasons and it is expected that its use will continue indefinitely.