Scheduling fixtures for New Zealand Cricket

This paper describes the problem faced every year by New Zealand Cricket in scheduling the principal inter-regional fixtures. This is a combinatorial optimization problem with few constraints but many objectives, which are described in detail. A technique known as Subcost-Guided Simulated Annealing...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IMA journal of management mathematics 2005, Vol.16 (2), p.99-112
Main Author: Wright, M. B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
metaheuristics
scheduling
simulated annealing
sport
subcost-guided search
timetabling
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Summary:This paper describes the problem faced every year by New Zealand Cricket in scheduling the principal inter-regional fixtures. This is a combinatorial optimization problem with few constraints but many objectives, which are described in detail. A technique known as Subcost-Guided Simulated Annealing is used to solve this problem, producing one or more schedules of high quality. One particular feature of the problem requires great care—the determination of adequate neighbourhoods for such a tightly constrained problem, where most simple changes lead to infeasibility. The approach adopted is to use a complex and unorthodox definition of a perturbation, each one leading to several possible neighbouring solutions which are generated by means of a tree search procedure. The system will be used in practice for the 2003–2004 cricket season and beyond.
ISSN:1471-678X
1471-6798
DOI:10.1093/imaman/dpi003