Just end the leagues and hand Liverpool and Gor Mahia the bloody titles

I like cricket. I mean, where do you get to a play a game in which you are allowed to break for lunch and later still, tea?

Which other sport gives you the luxury of watching a single match for five days?

But I particularly like this ball and bats game for thinking of so many scenarios of how to determine a winner of a match that has been interrupted (invariable by inclement weather).

There is this mathematical formula the game uses to decide a limited overs match that has been stopped by rain, called the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method. Well, cricket was invented in England where it rains almost half the year, but that is beside the point.

I will not get into the details of the DLS method as the calculations are quite complex, something that many readers, whose struggles with mathematics during their school-going days is public knowledge, would not enjoy reading.

What I can say is that when a match that is in progress is interrupted, the run target for the chasing team is reduced based on the DLS calculation and a winner is thus determined.

The system has been in use at the international level since January 1997 and no one has ever complained.

Football should consider a similar system, but for interrupted leagues, at least for the present circumstances. It would end the dilemma many leagues are faced with at the moment.

The coronavirus pandemic virtually stopped all the major professional sports leagues in the world. The English Premier and the Kenyan Premier League were all suspended, leaving the owners and stakeholders grappling with how they will conclude these competitions amid the virus lockdown restrictions.

The English Premier League last week said completing the remaining 92 fixtures remained its goal, but no fixed schedule has been drawn up yet. Most clubs have nine games left. The league is considering playing behind closed doors to clear the fixtures as the danger of failing to finish could cost $1.2 billion (Sh128 billion).

Ending the season as is has been thought of, with many feeling Liverpool deserve the title – they lead with 82 points, 25 more than second-placed Manchester City - though many well-known fans of rival teams would rather the season was cancelled entirely.

Tony Bloom, the owner of relegation-battling Brighton, would have no problem with Liverpool being crowned champions on a points-per-game basis. But he is certainly not ready to accept a team to be relegated on the same basis.

Any of six clubs in the Premiership could face the chop this season: 15th placed Brighton on 29 points, West Ham (27 points), Watford (27), Bournemouth (27), Aston Villa (25), and Norwich City (21).

The debate has also been raging in the Kenyan Premier League on how to end the season with 10 rounds of matches remaining. Some clubs, their names may betray them, have favoured a total cancellation of the league, like it happened with the Kenya Cup – the country’s top rugby union league.

Football Kenya Federation has weighed in on the matter, saying that should the remaining fixtures not be played, KPL can end the competition on a point-per-game basis and pick the winners and the teams to be relegated.

KPL has said a decision is yet to be reached on what option to take.

Gor Mahia lead the league table with 54 points while Kisumu All Stars and Chemelil Sugar occupy the relegation zone with nine points each.

I have argued in this column before that when a league has reached an advanced stage – say over 75 per cent of fixtures played – but cannot progress for whatever reason, a winner must be determined for the sake of sport, rather than cancelling the entire season.

Back to that maths again. Whichever mathematical formula so devised, the calculations will show Liverpool and Gor Mahia as winners.

You cannot gainsay the two teams have won the most games and were the best this season. Let them have their deserved titles and we wait for the next leagues post-Covid-19.

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