document_title: Indian Statistical Institute

question_text: in what area has india done pioneering work

text: Indian Statistical Institute

text: History[edit]

text: ISI's origin can be traced back to the Statistical Laboratory in Presidency College, Kolkata set up by Mahalanobis, who worked in the Physics Department of the college in the 1920s. During 1913–15, he did his Tripos in Mathematics and Physics at University of Cambridge,[4] where he came across Biometrica, a journal of Statistics founded by Karl Pearson.[5] Since 1915, he taught Physics at Presidency College,[4] but his interest in Statistics grew under the guidance of polymath Brajendranath Seal.[5] Many colleagues of Mahalanobis took an interest in Statistics and the group grew in the Statistical Laboratory. Considering the extensive application of Statistics in solving various problems in real life such as analyzing multivariate anthropometric data, applying sample surveys as a method of data collection, analyzing meteorological data, estimating crop yield etc., this group, particularly, Mahalanobis and his younger colleagues S. S. Bose and H. C. Sinha felt the necessity of forming a specialized institute to facilitate research and learning of Statistics.[6]

text: On 17 December 1931, Mahalonobis held a meeting with Pramatha Nath Banerji (Minto Professor of Economics), Nikhil Ranjan Sen (Khaira Professor of Applied Mathematics) and Sir R. N. Mukherji.[6][7][8] This meeting led to the establishment of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), which was formally registered on 28 April 1932, as a non-profit distributing learned society under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860.[7][8] Later, the institute was registered under the West Bengal Societies Registration Act XXVI of 1961 amended in 1964.[9] Mukherjee accepted the role of the president of ISI and held this position until his death in 1936.[9] In 1953,[10] ISI was relocated to a property owned by Professor Mahalanobis, named "Amrapali", in Baranagar, which is now a municipality at the northern outskirts of Kolkata.

text: In 1931, Mahalanobis was the only person working at ISI, and he managed it with an annual expenditure of Rs.250. It gradually grew with the pioneering work of a group of his colleagues including S. S. Bose, Samarendra Kumar Mitra (Head of the Computing Machines and Electronics Laboratory and designer of India's first computer), J. M. Sengupta, Raj Chandra Bose, Samarendra Nath Roy, K. R. Nair, R. R. Bahadur, Gopinath Kallianpur, D. B. Lahiri, and Anil Kumar Gain. Pitamber Pant, who had received training in Statistics at the institute, went on to become a secretary to the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, and was a great source of help and support to the institute.[7]

text: The institute started a training section in 1938. In due course, many of the early workers left the ISI for careers in the USA or for positions in public/private sector in India. By the 1940s, the ISI was internationally known and was taken as a model when the first institute of Statistics was set up in the United States by Gertrude Cox – perhaps the only time an institute in a developing country was used as a model in a developed country.[2]

text: As asked by the Government of India, in 1950, ISI designed and planned a comprehensive socio–economic national sample survey covering rural India. The organisation named National Sample Survey (NSS) was founded in 1950 for conducting this survey.[11] The field work was performed by the Directorate of NSS, functioning under the Ministry of Finance, whereas the other tasks such as planning of the survey, training of field workers, review, data processing and tabulation were executed by ISI.[11] In 1961, the Directorate of NSS started functioning under the Department of Statistics of Government of India, and later in 1971, the design and analysis wing of NSS was shifted from ISI to the Department of Statistics forming the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO).[11]

text: J. B. S. Haldane joined the ISI as a research professor from August 1957, and stayed on until February 1961, when he had a falling out with ISI Director P.C. Mahalanobis over Haldane's going on a much-publicized hunger strike to protest the United States pressuring U.S. National Science Fair winners Gary Botting and Susan Brown from attending an ISI banquet to which many prominent Indian scientists had been invited.[12] Haldane helped the ISI grow in biometrics.[13] Haldane also played a key role in developing the structure and content of the courses offered by ISI.

text: Until 1959, ISI was associated with the University of Calcutta. By 'The Indian Statistical Institute Act 1959' of the Parliament of India, amended in 1995, ISI was declared an institute of national importance,[1] and was authorised to hold examinations and to grant degrees and diplomas in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Quantitative Economics, and in any other subject related to Statistics as identified by the Institute from time to time.[1] ISI is a public university, as the same act also states that ISI would be funded by the Central Government of India.[1]

text: ISI had by the 1960s started establishing special service units in New Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai and Hyderabad to provide consultancy services to business, industry and governmental public service organisations in the areas of Statistical Process Control, Operations Research and Industrial Engineering. Additionally, Bangalore had a Documentation Research and Training Centre (DRTC). In the early 1970s, the Delhi and Bangalore units were converted to teaching centres. In 2008, ISI Chennai was upgraded to a teaching centre.[14] In 2011, ISI added a new centre in Tezpur.[15]

text: Administration[edit]

text: ISI functions as an autonomous institute under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI), which is the nodal ministry of the Government of India that ensures the functioning of ISI in accordance with The Indian Statistical Institute Act 1959.[3] ISI Council is the highest policy–making body of the institute.[16] Members of this council include the President of ISI, the Chairman of ISI, representatives of the Government of India including one representative of RBI, scientists not employed in ISI including one representative from the Planning Commission of India and one representative of the UGC, representatives of scientific and non-scientific workers of ISI, and representative from academic staff of ISI, including the Director of ISI and the Dean of Studies of ISI.[16] Bimal Kumar Roy was the Director until 10 June 2015; in a move unique in the history of the Institute, he was removed from his post via a notice posted on the web site of the Ministry of Statistics and Planning.[17]

text:
President
Term
Chairman
Term
Director
Term

Rajendra Nath Mookerjee
1932-35
B. Rama Rao
1954
P. C. Mahalanobis
1931–1972

E. C. Benthall
1936-37
D. N. Mitra
1955-63
C. R. Rao
1972–1976

James Reid-Kay
1938
K. P. S. Menon
1964-70
Gopinath Kallianpur
1976–1978

Badridas Goenka
1939-41
S. C. Roy
1971
B. P. Adhikari
1979–1983

Nalini Ranjan Sarkar
1942-43
Atma Ram
1972
Ashok Maitra
1984–1987

C. D. Deshmukh
1944-63
P. N. Haksar
1973-97
J. K. Ghosh
1987–1992

Y. B. Chavan
1964-66
Bimal Jalan
1998-2001
B. L. S. Prakasa Rao
1992–1995

Satyendra Nath Bose
1967-75
N. R. Madhava Menon
2002-03
S. B. Rao
1995–2000

Subimal Dutt
1976-89
Pranab Mukherjee
2004-12
K. B. Sinha
2000–2005

M. G. K. Menon
1990-2012
A. K. Antony
2012-May 2014
S. K. Pal
2005–2010

C. Rangarajan
2012-till date
Arun Shourie
2014-2016
Bimal Kumar Roy
2010–2015

Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay
2015 - till date

text: Objectives[edit]

text: The major objectives of the ISI are[18] to facilitate research and training of Statistics, to indulge in development of statistical theory and in application of statistical techniques – in the scenarios of planning at national level and in theoretical development of natural and social sciences, to participate in the process of data collection and analysis, to operate related projects in planning and improvement of efficiency of management and production.

text: The Sanskrit phrase भिन्नेष्वैक्यस्य दर्शणम् (Bhinneswaykyasya Darshanam), which literally means the philosophy of unity in diversity, is incorporated in the logo of the institute, and is the motto of ISI.[18]

text: Academics[edit]

text: Traditionally, ISI offers fewer programs (and admits fewer students) than most other degree granting academic institutions. Following the empowerment for granting degrees in the subject of Statistics as per the ISI Act 1959, in 1960, ISI initiated bachelor level degree program Bachelor of Statistics and master level degree course Master of Statistics, and also began awarding research level degrees such as PhD and DSc.[19] Later, ISI started offering Master of Technology (MTech) courses in Computer Science and in Quality, Reliability & Operations Research (QR&OR); these courses got recognition from All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).[19] As ISI Act of 1959 was amended by the Parliament of India in 1995, ISI was empowered to confer degrees and diplomas in subjects such as Mathematics, Quantitative Economics, Computer Science, and other subjects related to Statistics and Operations Research as determined by ISI from time to time.[19] Apart from the degree courses, ISI offers few diploma and certificate courses, special diploma courses for international students via ISEC, and special courses in collaboration with CSO for training probationary officers of Indian Statistical Service (ISS).[20]

text: Degree courses[edit]

text: ISI offers two undergraduate programs, viz. Bachelor of Statistics (Honours) (B.Stat) and Bachelor of Mathematics (Honours) (B. Math),[21] seven graduate programs, viz. Master of Statistics (M. Stat), Master of Mathematics (M. Math), Master of Science in Quantitative Economics (MSQE), Master of Science in Library and Information Science (MSLIS), Master of Science in Quality Management Science (MSQMS), Master of Technology in Computer Science (MTech–CS) and Master of Technology in Quality, Reliability and Operations Research (MTech–QROR),[21] three PG Diploma programs, viz Post Graduate Diploma in Computer Applications (PGDCA)[22] and P.G. Diploma in Statistical Methods and Analytics and research fellowships towards obtaining a PhD degree.[21]. The third PG diploma program being in collaboration with IIM Calcutta and IIT Kharagpur - Post Graduate Diploma in Business Analytics (PGDBA)[23] with an aim to nurture and develop highly skilled business analytical professionals.

text: Undergraduate courses are of 3 years duration, whereas the graduate level courses of 2 years of duration. For all undergraduate and graduate level courses, the academic year is divided in two semesters.[20] Except for sponsored candidates of MTech courses, ISI students are not required to pay any tuition fees.[20] Conditional to performance beyond a threshold, all students and research fellows receive stipends, fellowships and contingency/book grants.[20] Students demonstrating outstanding performances are rewarded at the end of the semesters.[20] ISI campuses provide hostel accommodations with recreational facilities and limited medical facilities available free of cost.[20]

text: Admissions[edit]

text: Applicants of all degree courses are required to go through written admission tests and interviews.[20] ISI conducts the written tests at various examination centres across India.[20] Only in few cases, candidates may get called for the interview directly, viz. applicants of MTech Computer Science course having a GATE score above a threshold.[20] Also, candidates of research fellowship programmes having already qualified for a fellowship from CSIR or NBHM, can directly appear in an interview.[20]

text: International Statistical Education Centre[edit]

text: In 1950, ISI, in collaboration with International Statistical Institute, UNESCO and Government of India, had set up International Statistical Education Centre (ISEC) to impart knowledge of theoretical and applied statistics to participants from Middle East, East and South-East Asia, the Far East and Commonwealth countries of Africa.[19] The main training course offered by ISEC is meant for international students, preferably graduates with proficiency in English and Mathematics.[24] ISEC, located in Kolkata campus of ISI, functions with support from the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation of the Government of India.[25]

text: Publications[edit]

text: Sankhya, the statistical journal published by ISI, was founded in 1933, along the lines of Karl Pearson's Biometrika.[7] Mahalanobis was the founder editor.[19] Each volume of Sankhya consists of four issues; two of them are in Series A, containing articles on theoretical statistics, probability theory and stochastic processes, and the other two issues form the Series B, containing articles on applied statistics, i.e. applied probability, applied stochastic processes, econometrics and statistical computing.[26]

text: Rankings[edit]

text: According to India Education Review, no Indian university is in the world's top 200 universities.[27] The ascribed ranking of ISI is 386.[28] The web ranking of this institute, according to 4ICU (4 International Colleges and Universities), is 1693.[29] According to the web ranking published by Webometrics Ranking of World Universities, ISI currently holds the world rank of 2086.[30] In the subject-wise academic world ranking of Computer Science, Indian Statistical Institute features in 101—150 category.[31] The Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata is ranked 2nd in Computer Science research by mean citation rate, p-Index, h-index among all universities in India.[32]

text: Achievements[edit]

text: Over the years, researchers of ISI made fundamental contributions in various fields of Statistics such as Design of Experiments, Sample Survey, Multivariate statistics and Computer Science. Mahalanobis introduced the measure Mahalanobis distance which is used in multivariate statistics and other related fields.[33] Raj Chandra Bose, who is known for his contributions in coding theory, worked on Design of Experiments during his tenure at ISI, and was one of the three mathematicians, who disproved Euler's conjecture on orthogonal Latin squares.[10] Anil Kumar Bhattacharya is credited with introduction of the measures Bhattacharyya distance and Bhattacharya coefficient. Samarendra Nath Roy is known for his pioneering contributions in multivariate statistics.[34] Among colleagues of Mahalanobis, other notable contributors were K. R. Nair in Design of experiments, Jitendra Mohan Sengupta in Sample Survey, Ajit Dasgupta in Demography and Ramkrishna Mukherjea in Quantitative Sociology.[10] C. R. Rao's contributions during his association with ISI include two theorems of Statistical Inference known as Cramér–Rao inequality and Rao-Blackwell Theorem, and introduction of orthogonal arrays in Design of Experiments. Anil Kumar Gain is known for his contributions to the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient with his colleague Sir Ronald Fisher at the University of Cambridge.[33]

text: In 1953, India's first indigenous computer was designed by Samarendra Kumar Mitra who headed the Computing Machines and Electronics Laboratory at ISI Calcutta.

text: During 1953 - 1956 distinguished scientists, like Ronald Fisher, Norbert Wiener and Yuri Linnik visited ISI. Norbert Wiener collaborated with Gopinath Kallianpur on topics including ergodic theory, prediction theory and generalized harmonic analysis[35] In 1962, during his month-long visit to ISI, Soviet mathematician Andrey Kolmogorov wrote his notable paper on Kolmogorov Complexity, which was published in Sankhya, 1963.[36] Other distinguished scientists including Jerzy Neyman, Walter A. Shewhart, W. Edwards Deming and Abraham Wald have visited ISI during the tenure of P. C. Mahalanobis.[37]

text: Planning Commission[edit]

text: The second five-year plan of India was a brainchild of Mahalanobis. The plan followed the Mahalanobis model, an economic development model developed by Mahalanobis in 1953. The plan attempted to determine the optimal allocation of investment between productive sectors in order to maximise long-run economic growth . It used the prevalent state of art techniques of operations research and optimisation as well as the novel applications of statistical models developed at ISI. This second five-year plan shifted the focus from agriculture to industrialisation, with an objective of attaining self-reliance by economy of India. Domestic production of industrial products was encouraged in this plan, particularly in the development of the public sector.[38] The two-pronged strategy devised in this plan targeted rapid growth of the heavy industry, keeping emphasis on growth of small and cottage industries.[39]

text: B. S. Minhas and K. S. Parikh, both from the Planning Unit of ISI Delhi, played key roles in the Planning Commission of the Government of India. Minhas, who joined the Planning Unit in 1962 and retired as a distinguished scientist in 1989, was a member of the Planning Commission during 1971–74.[40][41] Parikh, who was a member of the Planning Commission during 2004–09,[40] chaired Integrated Energy Policy Committee of the commission,[42] was a member of the Economic Advisory Council of India during the tenure of five prime ministers,[42] also played a role in the Department of Atomic Energy establishment, and was a key advisor to the government on energy issues.[42]

text: Computer science[edit]

text: In India, the first analog computer was designed by Samarendra Kumar Mitra and built by Ashish Kumar Maity at ISI in 1953, for use in computation of numerical solutions of simultaneous linear equations using a modified version of Gauss-Siedel iteration.[43] In 1955, the first digital computer of India was procured by ISI.[43] This machine was of a model named HEC-2M, manufactured by British Tabulating Machine Company (BTM).[43] As per the agreement with BTM, ISI had to take care of the installation work and maintenance of it,[43] before it became operational in 1956.[44] Though this HEC-2M machine and the URAL-1 machine, which was bought in 1959 from Russia,[43] were operational till 1963,[43] ISI began development of the first second-generation digital computer of India in collaboration with Jadavpur University (JU).[43] This joint collaboration led by the head of the Computing Machines and Electronics Laboratory at ISI, Samarendra Kumar Mitra, produced the transistor-driven machine ISIJU-1, which became operational in 1964.[44] The first annual convention of the Computer Society of India (CSI) was hosted by ISI in 1965.[43][44] The Computer and Communication Sciences division of ISI produced many eminent scientists such as Samarendra Kumar Mitra (its original founder), Dwijesh Dutta Majumdar, Sankar Kumar Pal, Bidyut B. Chaudhuri, Nikhil R. Pal, Bhabani P. Sinha, Bhargab B. Bhattacharya, Malay K. Kundu, Sushmita Mitra, Bhabatosh Chanda, C. A. Murthy, Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay and many. ISI is regarded as one of the top most centres for research in computer science in India and attracts some of the best students in the country.[45]

text: The Knowledge-based Computer Systems project (KBCS), funded jointly by Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DoE), Government of India and UNDP since 1986, has a nodal centre at ISI Kolkata.[46] This unit is responsible for research in the area of image processing, pattern recognition, computer vision and artificial intelligence.[47]

text: Social sciences[edit]

text: R. L. Brahmachari, known for his work in many fields like agricultural sciences, zoology, botany, biometrics, did much of his work at ISI.

text: The institute has done some pioneering work and research in anthropology and palaeontology. A trove of dinosaur fossils was discovered by a team led by ISI researchers in the early 1960s. The scattered fossils were recovered and the partial skeleton was reconstructed at ISI's Baranagar campus. It turned out to be a unique species and was named the Isisaurus, after the institute.

text: The Linguistic Research Unit (LRU) of ISI was involved in the study of speech pathology. Đorđe Kostić of this laboratory was a distinguished scientist. He invented a unique hearing aid, called SAFA (Selective Auditory Frequency Amplifier) that simulates frequency-range according to the need of the particular hearing impaired person.[48]

text: Alumni[edit]

text: Many students and research scholars of ISI pursued a career in academics, and have excelled in the fields of statistics, mathematics, probability theory, computer science and economics. In statistics alumni of ISI who have been elected a Fellow of the American Statistical Association include P. V. Sukhatme (1950) and K. R. Nair (1951).

text: ISI alumni notable for non-academic career include politicians Subramanian Swamy and Dipankar Bhattacharya.

text: Visits by Heads of states[edit]

text: Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev visited ISI during his visit to India in 1955.[35] Zhou Enlai, the Prime Minister of China, and Ho Chi Minh, the President of Vietnam, during their visit to India specifically visited ISI respectively on 9 September 1956 and 13 February 1958.[49]

text: Campuses[edit]

text: ISI has its headquarters and the main campus in Kolkata. It has other centres in New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and smaller units in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Coimbatore, Giridih, Pune and Vadodara.[50] Tezpur, the 4th centre of ISI was inaugurated in 2011.[51]

text: Since mid-forties, ISI pioneered in research and application of Statistical Quality Control (SQC) in India.[52] Walter A. Shewhart, the statistician known as the father of SQC, and other experts of this field visited ISI over the years.[19] The first Statistical Quality Control and Operations Research (SQC & OR) unit of ISI was set up in Mumbai in 1953, followed by Bangalore and Kolkata units in 1954.[52] In 1976, this unit was transformed into the SQC & OR Division,[53] which now operates eight units, located at various industrial centres in India – Kolkata, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai, Coimbatore and Vadodara.[54] These units partake in technical consultancy with public and private organisations, in addition with performing research and training activities.[19]

text: The branch at Giridih was set up in 1931 and it has two operational units, viz. the Sociological Research Unit and the Agricultural Research Unit.[55]

text: Kolkata campus[edit]

text: ISI Kolkata has a campus consisting of six addresses at 201 through 206 Barrackpore Trunk Road, Baranagar. These include a house, which was an erstwhile office of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) of India.

text: ISI Kolkata campus is eco-friendly, as conceived by Mahalanobis. Hollow bricks that protect from heat and noise were used with minimum use of reinforced concrete, to avoid radiation. There was no use of bitumen-basalt combination at the roads inside ISI campuses. This helps in reduction of radiation and preservation of rain water to maintain equilibrium in ground-water level.

text: The Kolkata campus offers bachelors level degree course in Statistics (B. Stat), master's degree course in Statistics (M.Stat), Mathematics (M.Math), Computer Science (MTech), Quality Reliability and Operations Research (MTech) and Quantitative Economics (M.S.).[21] Major divisions and units are: Statistics and Mathematics Unit (SMU), Human Genetics Unit (HGU), Physics and Applied Mathematics Unit (PAMU), Advanced Computation and MicroElectronics Unit (ACMU), Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Unit (CVPRU), Machine Intelligence Unit (MIU), Electronics and Communication Sciences Unit (ECSU), Applied Statistics Unit (ASU), Economic Research Unit (ERU), Linguistic Research Unit (LRU), Sociology Research Unit (SRU), Psychometry Research Unit (PRU) and Population Studies Unit (PSU).

text: The Kolkata campus houses the International Statistical Education Centre (ISEC), which opened in 1950. This Centre provides training in statistics to sponsored students mainly from the Middle East, South and South East Asia, the Far East and the Commonwealth Countries of Africa. The Centre also offers various short-term courses in statistics and related subjects.

text: The Center for Soft Computing Research: A National Facility, an associate institute of Indian Statistical Institute and established in Kolkata in 2005, is unique in the country. Apart from conducting basic research, it offers a 3-month course and promotes less endowed institutes by providing fellowships and research grants.

text: The Central Library of ISI is located at Kolkata with branches at the other facilities. The library has over 200,000 volumes of books and journals with a special emphasis on the field of statistics and related studies. The main branch also has a collection of official reports, reprints, maps, and microfilms. The library receives over a thousand new technical and scientific journals every year. The Library has databases on CD-ROM and is working on further digitization of the collection. The library has a separate collection of works on the topics of mathematics and statistics called the Eastern Regional Centre of NBHM collection, funded by grants from the National Board for Higher Mathematics.

text: Delhi campus[edit]

text:
Main road inside the Institute

Gardens near the main entrance

Night view of the campus

Canteen

Hostel

Library

text: The ISI campus at New Delhi was established in 1974 and was shifted to the present campus in 1975.[56]

text: The Delhi campus offers two master level courses Master of Statistics (M. Stat) and Master of Science (M. S.) in Quantitative Economics, and doctoral programs.[21]

text: Bangalore campus[edit]

text:
Main building

Main hostel

Guest House

Auditorium

text: The Bangalore Centre of ISI started with a Statistical Quality Control and Operations Research (SQC&OR) unit in 1954.[52] The Documentation Research and Training Centre (DRTC) here became operational from 1962 with honorary professor S. R. Ranganathan as the head.[57] Prof. Mahalanobis planned of starting a full-fledged centre of ISI here around the mid-sixties. In 1966, the then Government of Karnataka granted ISI 30 acres of forest land full of eucalyptus trees, next to the upcoming campus of the Bangalore University, located on the Mysore Road on the outskirts of the city.[58]

text: However, after death of Prof. Mahalanobis in 1972, the project of establishing Bangalore centre got temporarily shelved. The project was again revived during 1976–78. Concrete proposals were made to the Government of India to get grants for the development of the land already in possession of ISI, along with the construction of an academic block with a library and offices.[58]

text: In the meantime, a building was rented on Church Street, in Bangalore downtown, and various activities of the Bangalore Centre started in September 1978. The Economic Analysis Unit (EAU) and the Statistics and Mathematics Unit (SMU) were established. The SQC&OR Unit and the DRTC unit, which were functioning from other rented buildings at that time, joined this new Centre.

text: As construction of the administrative block at the new campus got completed, the various units moved to the new campus in May 1985. The sprawling green wooded Campus has Residential Facility for students, faculty and staff.

text: The Bangalore centre was formally declared as a centre of ISI in September 1996.[58]

text: The Systems Science and Informatics Unit (SSIU) was established in 2009[58]

text: The Bangalore centre has by now became an institution well known for its academic activities in Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, SQC and Operations Research, Library and Information Science, and Quantitative Economics.[58]

text: The Bangalore campus offers bachelor level course Bachelor of Mathematics (B. Math), master level courses Master of Mathematics (M. Math), Master of Science (M. S.) in Library and Information Science and Master of Science (M. S.) in Quality Management Science, and doctoral programs.[21]

text: Student life[edit]

text: Student Fest[edit]

text: Integration is the annual techno-cultural fest of Indian Statistical Institute, usually held during the first and second weekend of January each year. It is one of the biggest student fests in Kolkata, and attracts participation from all over the world.Also the performances of great artists are always a center of attraction for all.

text: Placement[edit]

text: Alumni of ISI – including recipients of PhD degree – are employed in government and semi–government departments, industrial establishments, research institutions, in India and other countries.[20] There is a placement cell in ISI Kolkata that organizes campus interviews by prospective employers in various campuses of ISI.[20] Since recent past, a high percentage of ISI alumni gets absorbed into jobs in analytics, banking, finance and software industry.[59]


document_title: List of winless seasons

question_text: what is the worst nfl record in history

question_tokens: what is the worst nfl record in history

root

text: List of winless seasons

text: Gridiron football[edit]

text: Because of the relatively small number of games played in college and professional football seasons, there is a possibility that a very bad team will not manage to win any games. Before overtime was used consistently, teams might tie a game without winning one; these are generally counted in lists of winless seasons. This is because, during eras before overtime was introduced to American football, leagues generally ignored tied games when calculating winning percentage. In 2001, the Columbus Wardogs of AF2, the minor league of the Arena Football League, made history becoming the first American football team to go 0–16.

tag: p

text: NFL teams with no wins in a season (8 or more games)[edit]

text:
Year
Team
Wins
Losses
Ties
Notes

2008
Detroit Lions
0
16
0
Most losses in a single season. Detroit was the first non-expansion team to lose every game in a full season since World War II. This was their second winless season in franchise history.

1982
Baltimore Colts
0
8
1
Strike-shortened season.

1976
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
0
14
0
Debut season; went on to lose the first 12 games of the 1977 season as well, to start 0–26 as a franchise.

1960
Dallas Cowboys
0
11
1
Debut season.

1944
Brooklyn Tigers
0
10
0
Suspended operations after the season, and did not return to the league after World War II ended.

1944
Card-Pitt
0
10
0
Merger between Chicago Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers due to player shortages during World War II; the Steelers themselves merged with the Philadelphia Eagles the previous year for the same reasons. Also, the Steagles were the only team the Steelers had merged and won games with the Eagles.

1943
Chicago Cardinals
0
10
0
If one includes the 1944 Card-Pitt team (see above), the Cardinals are the only NFL team to have back-to-back full seasons without a victory. (The league, however, considers Card-Pitt and the Cardinals to be separate franchises.)

1942
Detroit Lions
0
11
0
With its 0–16 mark in 2008 (see above), the Lions became only the second NFL franchise with two full winless seasons (and the only one still in existence).

1934
Cincinnati Reds
0
8
0
Folded before the season was over.

1925
Columbus Tigers
0
9
0
First franchise with more than one full winless season (the Tigers folded after the 1926 campaign).

1922
Columbus Panhandles
0
8
0

tag: table

text: The Rochester Jeffersons went a combined 0–21–2 from 1922–25, but played only partial NFL schedules in those years (0–4–1, 0–4, 0–7 and 0–6–1, respectively). They also had another winless season in 1911 going 0–1–3 in the New York Pro Football League.

text: Source: Worst NFL Teams of all time (ESPN)[1]

text: NFL teams with no wins in a season (fewer than 8 games)[edit]

text:
Year
Team
Wins
Losses
Ties

1929
Dayton Triangles
0
6
0
Dayton's final season. The third and consecutive winless seasons for Dayton. Their final win was in 1927 then consecutively went 0–18–1 losing every game in their final two seasons.

1928
Dayton Triangles
0
7
0
The second winless season for Dayton.

1927
Buffalo Bisons
0
5
0
The Bisons consecutively went 0–13–2 through a three-season span.

1926
Hammond Pros
0
4
0
The second winless season for Hammond.

1926
Louisville Colonels
0
4
0
Louisville changed their name from the Brecks to the Colonels making this the franchise's third winless season and going 1-12–0 in their four seasons.

1925
Rochester Jeffersons
0
6
1
The fourth consecutive winless season for the Jeffersons. They went 0–21–2 through this span.

1925
Dayton Triangles
0
7
1

1925
Duluth Kelleys
0
3
0

1925
Milwaukee Badgers
0
6
0

1924
Kenosha Maroons
0
4
1
Only season.

1924
Minneapolis Marines
0
6
0
Consecutively went 0-9-2 through a three-season span.

1924
Rochester Jeffersons
0
6
0
The third consecutive winless season for the Jeffersons.

1923
Louisville Brecks
0
3
0
The second winless season for Louisville in their third season, and only having one win in the previous season.

1923
Rochester Jeffersons
0
4
0
The second consecutive winless season for the Jeffersons.

1922
Evansville Crimson Giants
0
3
0

1922
Rochester Jeffersons
0
4
1

1922
Hammond Pros
0
4
1

1921
Tonawanda Kardex
0
1
0
Only NFL season.

1921
Muncie Flyers
0
2
0
The second winless season in a row. The Flyers finished their NFL franchise record as 0–3.

1921
Louisville Brecks
0
2
0

1921
New York Brickley Giants
0
2
0
Only Season.

1920
Muncie Flyers
0
1
0

text: Arena Football League[edit]

text: The previously shorter length of seasons in arena football made imperfect seasons quite possible. The following teams went through an Arena Football League season without winning a game:

text:
Year
Team
Played
Remarks

1989
Maryland Commandos
4
Only year branded as the Maryland Commandos.

1991
Columbus Thunderbolts
10
Moved to Cleveland the following year.

1992
New Orleans Night
10
Team ceased operations after season.

1994
Milwaukee Mustangs
12
First winless team to remain in same city during following season. Went to 10–4 in 1996. Folded in 2001.

1996
Memphis Pharaohs
14
Relocated twice, firstly as the Portland Forest Dragons from 1997 and then as the Oklahoma Wranglers. Folded in 2001.

2003
Carolina Cobras
16
Went to 6–10 the following season. Folded in 2004.

text: United Football League[edit]

text: The United Football League had one winless season. In their inaugural season, the 2009 New York Sentinels lost all six of their games. The team, which was a traveling team that played games in Hartford, Long Island and New Jersey (and had intended to play a game in New York City but backed out), fired its head coach and settled permanently in Hartford to become the Hartford Colonials. Under the UFL's double round robin format, only one team could finish any particular season entirely with losses, since every team played each other at least twice.

text: World League of American Football[edit]

text: The 1991 inaugural season of the World League of American Football saw the Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks fold after losing all ten of their regular-season games. The following year, the WLAF replaced that franchise with the Ohio Glory who almost met the same fate but managed one win in their lone season.

text: Other American football leagues[edit]

text: Since non-professional, semi-professional and minor league teams are inherently unstable in their membership, it is far easier for seasons in which a team wins no games to occur. In the case of non-professional teams, neither mechanisms to force a team to shut down against its will, nor effective drafts or revenue sharing mechanisms to distribute talent evenly among teams typically exist, leading to poor teams accumulating multiple winless seasons. Four teams in football history have both lost all their games and failed to score a single point in an entire season; all played eight games or less. The 1938 Clintonville Four Wheel Drive Truckers failed to score a point in a nine-game season, but managed two 0–0 ties.[2] There are at least twelve teams who have accumulated losing streaks of 20 games or more; there are also four teams who have accumulated seasons of all losses with at least 13 games.[3] In the case of minor professional football, particularly in indoor football leagues, winless seasons often result from an owner's abandonment or other financial hardship. The American Indoor Football Association had at least one winless team in five out of six seasons. The National Indoor Football League went its first three seasons without a winless season, but beginning in 2004, at least one team went winless every year until the league's collapse in 2007. Though the Spring Football League had two teams with winless seasons (the Los Angeles Dragons and the Miami Tropics), and the Stars Football League had one such team (the traveling 2011 Michigan Coyotes), they are almost never mentioned in discussions of perfect and perfectly bad seasons, since those teams only played two games each before the seasons were cut short.

text: AF2 was the minor league of the Arena Football League. In 2001, the Columbus Wardogs made history becoming the first American football team to finish a season 0–16.

text: The Legends Football League (originally Lingerie Football League), whose seasons are only three to four games long for each team, has had eight teams with perfectly bad seasons in three years of play. One such team, the Toronto Triumph, did not win a game in either of their competing seasons in 2011 and 2012.

text: The Princeton Tigers sprint football squad, a team consisting of players under 172 pounds, sustained 16 consecutive winless seasons before Princeton University shut the team down in 2015, citing safety concerns in allowing players to play on a team so heavily outmatched.[4]

text: Canadian Football League[edit]

text: The Canadian Football League currently has a regular season of eighteen games; from 1952 to 1985 it was generally sixteen games as with the current NFL season, though those teams in the Eastern Division played only fourteen as late as 1973.[5] Also, the CFL did not adopt interdivisional regular season play until the early 1960s. Consequently, especially given the much smaller number of teams playing, there have been fewer imperfect seasons than in the National Football League, with the exception of the first decade or so when fewer games were played.

text: CFL teams with no wins in a season (based on official CFL site)[edit]

text:
Year
Team
Games
Wins
Losses
Ties
Comments

1949
Hamilton Wildcats
12
0
12
0
Merged with the Hamilton Tigers for 1950 season

1946
Hamilton Wildcats
12
0
10
2

1941
Montreal Royals
6
0
6
0
Did not resume when Canadian football recommenced after World War II.

1939
Montreal Royals
6
0
5
1

1938
Edmonton Eskimos
8
0
8
0

1938
Montreal Royals
6
0
6
0

text: National Pro Grid League[edit]

text: The National Pro Grid League has a short season of 3 to 4 games per team plus a 4 to 8 team playoff. The Los Angeles Reign did not win one game during the first three seasons of the league.

text: NPGL teams with no wins in a season (based on NPGL site)[edit]

text:
Season
Team
Games
Wins
Losses
Comments

2016
LA Reign
3
0
3

2015
LA Reign
3
0
3

2014
LA Reign
4
0
4
Including one playoff loss.

text: Lacrosse[edit]

text: Seasons in the National Lacrosse League and its predecessors Major Indoor Lacrosse League and Eagle Pro Box Lacrosse League have varied from eight games in the first years of competition to sixteen games today, with the extension having been gradual. The Charlotte Cobras, who played only one season before folding, are the only team in the history of the NLL to have not won a game in a season. In their sole 1996 season they played twelve games and lost them all, before folding.

text: In Major League Lacrosse, the season has consisted of either twelve or fourteen games since the league was formed in 2001. The only winless season in Major League Lacrosse has been by the 2006 Chicago Machine, who went 0–12 and lost an MLL record thirteen consecutive games.

text: Other North American leagues[edit]

text: In the other major professional sports leagues of North America it is virtually impossible that a team could lose all its games, for the simple reason that there are many more games in the regular season than in football or lacrosse.

text: Major League Soccer[edit]

text: The Major League Soccer schedule has consisted of between twenty-six and thirty-four games. No team in Major League Soccer has ever come close to losing all its games: the most losses in a MLS season is 24 from 32 games by the Kansas City Wizards in 1999, the year when the league used shootouts to decide all tied games. Shootouts were abandoned the following season. In 2013, D.C. United set new MLS records in futility. They won a league low three games, and lost a record 24 games, tying the aforementioned Wizards.

text: National Basketball Association[edit]

text: Since the 1967–68 season, the National Basketball Association's regular season schedule has been 82 games long (except 1998–99, 50 games and 2011–12, 66 games due to lockouts). It has been as few as 48 games long, but eventually expanded to an 82-game schedule.

text: The 2011–12 Charlotte Bobcats hold the record for the lowest winning percentage of any team in an NBA season, winning only 7 out of 66 games in a lockout-shortened season, for a winning percentage of .106. This broke the record held by the 1972–73 Philadelphia 76ers, who had a winning percentage of .110 in a full 82-game season. The 1947–48 Providence Steamrollers won an all-time NBA low of six games out of 48 (.125 winning percentage).

text: The 1953–54 Baltimore Bullets went 0–20 on the road. More recently, the 1990–91 Sacramento Kings managed a near-imperfect road season, winning only one of 41 away games.[6] Overall, the Kings lost 43 consecutive road games before beating the Orlando Magic 95–93 on November 23, 1991.

text: Women's National Basketball Association[edit]

text: Since its formation in 1997, the WNBA regular season has been gradually increased from 30 to the current 34-game schedule.

text: No team has gone through a WNBA season without winning a game; the fewest wins in a WNBA season has been three by the 1998 Washington Mystics in their first season, and the 2011 Tulsa Shock. Two other expansion WNBA teams, the 2008 Atlanta Dream at 4–30 and the 2006 Chicago Sky at 5–29 have come closest to this record.

text: United States Basketball League[edit]

text: The Atlantic City Seagulls of the (now defunct) summertime, minor league USBL finished the 2001 season with an 0–28 record. It was quite a turnaround for the franchise, as they were dominant in the USBL just a few years earlier; the Seagulls were USBL runners-up in 1996, then swept to three straight titles in 1997–99. In 2000, the Seagulls slipped to 12–18, fourth place, and were beaten in the first round of the playoffs; after their winless 2001 campaign, the Seagulls folded.

text: British Basketball League[edit]

text: In 2013, Mersey Tigers became the first top-flight British basketball team to go a whole season winless.

text: This record of 0–33 in the regular season of the 2012–13 BBL Championship, was completed with a 90–57 loss away to Glasgow Rocks, but can also be extended to include their complete season of 0–35 (defeats in the first round of the BBL Cup and BBL Trophy).

text: The defeat in the BBL Trophy was also significant because they fell at this stage to EBL Division One side, Worthing Thunder, and in doing so, it was the first time a BBL side had been knocked out from a competition by an EBL team.

text: They also currently hold the longest losing streak of 34 consecutive defeats in the BBL Championship.

text: National Hockey League[edit]

text: The National Hockey League's schedule, like that of the NBA, consists of 82 games. Since the 2004–05 lockout, teams receive two points for a win, one point for a loss in overtime or a shootout, and zero points for a loss in regulation time. From 1997 until 2004, teams received two points for a win, one point for a tie or overtime loss, and zero points for a regulation loss. Prior to 1997, teams received two points for a win, one point for a tie, and no points for a loss. From 1997 to 2004, NHL standings tables had four columns: W–L–T–OTL. From 2005 to 2010, it was reduced to three, W–L–OTL; in 2011, a "regulation/overtime win" column (ROW) was added, which excludes shootout wins; it does not change the point totals, but does serve as the second tiebreaker (after games played; since all teams play 82 games by the season's end barring any unreschedulable cancellations, it becomes the first tiebreaker at season's end).

text: No team has ever come close to losing every game in an NHL season; the worst record is by the 1974–75 Washington Capitals who went 8–67–5 (8 wins, 67 losses, 5 ties). The 1974–75 Capitals and 1992–93 Ottawa Senators hold the record for fewest wins on the road with one. The NHL played an 80-game season in 1974–75, whereas in 1992–93 the schedule consisted of 84 games, thus giving the Senators the percentage record for worst road record. The Senators also set a record by losing their first 38 consecutive road games (the Senators' road statistics include a neutral site game played in Hamilton, Ontario, in which the Senators were considered the road team).

text: Major League Baseball[edit]

text: Since the early 1960s, the schedule of both leagues of Major League Baseball has been 162 games long, and before that it was 154 games long. With such a schedule, it is practically impossible for a team to finish with a winless season. The sabermetric baseball statistic Wins Above Replacement is calculated on the premise that even a team consisting entirely of replacement-level players is expected to win a baseline minimum number of games (typically 40-50 depending primarily on the caliber of the team's division) per 162 game season.

text: The closest to a perfectly imperfect season in the National League was the infamous 1899 Cleveland Spiders season, who finished with a record of 20-134 after its roster was looted by the owners of the team, who then stacked the best players onto the St. Louis Perfectos.

text: With a win percentage of .130, the Spiders are (as of 2016) the last of three major league teams to have finished a season below the Mendoza line (.200) in win percentage; the others were the 1889 Louisville Colonels (.196), and the 1890 Pittsburgh Alleghenys (.169), whose best players had jumped to the Pittsburgh Burghers of the newly formed Player's League.

text: Since the establishment of the American League in 1901, the teams to have come closest to imperfection are the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics (36–117), the 1935 Boston Braves (38–115), the 1962 New York Mets (40–120) and the 2003 Detroit Tigers (43–119).

text: Australian rules football[edit]

text: VFL/AFL[edit]

text: In the Australian Football League (until 1990 called the Victorian Football League), seasons have ranged from twelve games per team (in 1916, when only four teams competed due to World War I) to 22 games (since 1970, except for 1993 when 20 games were played), with most seasons being of 18 or 22 games duration.

text: VFL/AFL teams with no wins in a season[edit]

text:
Season
Team
Wins
Losses
Draws
Remarks

1897
St Kilda
0
14
0
Did not win a match until Round 1 of 1900

1898
St Kilda
0
17
0

1899
St Kilda
0
17
0
VFL/AFL record low percentage of 23.2 (scored only 323 points and conceded 1,391)

1902
St Kilda
0
17
0
Full forward Charlie Baker won the VFL Leading Goalkicker Medal despite the team being winless

1913
University
0
18
0
Full forward Roy Park won the VFL Leading Goalkicker Medal despite the team being winless

1914
University
0
18
0
Dropped out of competition and folded at the end of the season; reformed in 1919 and have competed in amateur football since

1919
Melbourne
0
16
0
Melbourne's first season in the VFL after being in recess from 1916-1918 due to World War I[7]

1926
North Melbourne
0
17
1

1928
Hawthorn
0
18
0

1931
North Melbourne
0
18
0

1934
North Melbourne
0
18
0

1950
Hawthorn
0
18
0

1964
Fitzroy
0
18
0

text: SANFL[edit]

text: In the South Australian National Football League, season length has varied from twelve games to 22. Since 2015, teams have played 18 games per season.

text:
Season
Team
Wins
Losses
Draws
Remarks

1898
West Adelaide
0
14
0
First season in SAFL.

1906[8]
West Adelaide
0
12
0

1908[9]
Sturt
0
12
0

1909[10]
South Adelaide
0
12
0

1921[11]
Glenelg
0
14
0
First season in SAFL; did not record first win until Round 1 of 1925.

1922[12]
Glenelg
0
14
0

1923[13]
Glenelg
0
14
0

1924[14]
Glenelg
0
14
0

1926[15]
South Adelaide
0
13
1

1933[16]
West Adelaide
0
17
0

1948[17]
South Adelaide
0
17
0

1950[18]
South Adelaide
0
17
0

1964[19]
Central District
0
20
0
First season in SANFL.

1995
Sturt
0
22
0
The first (and to date only) 0-22 season in a major Australian rules football league.

text: WAFL[edit]

text: The West Australian Football League has existed within Western Australia under various monikers since 1885, and until the 1980s was of equivalent standard to the VFL and SANFL. Its season was originally around six to nine games in length, later increasing to 21 games, and from 2018 is 18 .[a][20]

text:
Season
Team
Wins
Losses
Draws
Remarks

1899
Rovers
0
8
0
Folded during season; Perth played the remaining fixtures.

1902
Subiaco
0
15
0

1905
Subiaco
0
10
0
Played fewer games than rival league clubs due to financial difficulties.

1917
Midland Junction
0
12
0
Disbanded at end of season.

1999
Peel
0
20
0

text: VFA/VFL[edit]

text: From the time of the formation of the Victorian Football League in 1896 until it was dissolved in 1995, the VFA was the second-tier club competition in Victoria. Its home-and-away season varied erratically from 12 to 22 games in length.

text:
Season
Team
Wins
Losses
Draws
VFA Division
Remarks

1898
Brunswick
0
15
0
Single

1903
Essendon Town
0
18
0
Single

1904
Preston
0
18
0
Single

1910
Preston
0
18
0
Single

1912
Melbourne City
0
18
0
Single
First season in the VFA.

1913
Melbourne City
0
18
0
Single
Folded at the end of the season.

1941
Sandringham
0
18
0
Single
Conceded then-record score of 43.29 (287).

1951
Box Hill
0
19
1
Single
First season in VFA.

1961
Brighton
0
18
0
Second
Nearly folded at the end of the season before reforming as Brighton-Caulfield.

1973
Box Hill
0
18
0
Second

1977
Box Hill
0
18
0
Second

1981
Sunshine
0
18
0
Second

1983
Waverley
0
18
0
First

1986
Camberwell
0
18
0
First

1986
Mordialloc
0
18
0
Second

1989
Camberwell
0
18
0
Single
Defeated Sunshine in Round 4, but Sunshine dropped out of the VFA and folded after eight games, with their record being expunged.

1990
Camberwell
0
18
0
Single
Dropped out of the VFA and folded before the start of the following season.

1993
Coburg
0
18
0
Single
Lost 29 consecutive matches between 1992–1994.

1995
Williamstown
0
16
0
Single

text: After 1995, the VFA was replaced by the current Victorian Football League (VFL), which serves as a state league and feeder to the AFL.

text:
Season
Team
Wins
Losses
Draws
Remarks

2001
Bendigo
0
20
0

2002
Bendigo
0
19
1

2009
Bendigo
0
18
0

2013
Bendigo
0
18
0

2014
Bendigo
0
18
0
Dropped out of league and folded at the end of the season.

2015
Frankston
0
18
0

text: Rugby league[edit]

text: Great Britain[edit]

text: In the Rugby Football League Championship, teams initially played a variable number of games, with the maximum ranging over time from 26 to 38, and some teams playing as few as fourteen. In more modern times the fixture list has been standardised at 26 games per team.

text: As a result of this fairly lengthy schedule, it has been almost impossible for British rugby league teams to lose all their games, with the only exception being during World War II's so-called "Wartime emergency League" when teams were often able to arrange no more than ten games and some as few as five. The only two winless seasons since normal competition resumed after the war have been in the second and third divisions of the Championship.

text:
Season
Team
Wins
Losses
Draws
Remarks

2006
Oldham Roughyeds
0
18
0
National League One
Finished with a points difference of -724

1991–92
Nottingham City
0
26
0
Third Division
Last season in league
Finished with a points difference of -1159

1989–90
Runcorn Highfield
0
28
0
Second Division
Renamed Highfield for following season; still took five successive wooden spoons before disbanding in 1997

1941–1942
Bramley
0
19
0
Left the league until 1945–1946

1940–1941
Broughton Rangers
0
10
0
"Wartime Emergency Season"
Left the league until 1945–1946 as Belle Vue Rangers before disbanding in 1955.

1940–1941
Leigh
0
13
0
"Wartime Emergency Season"
Did not return until 1946–1947

1906–1907
Liverpool City
0
30
0
Scored only 76 points and conceded almost 1,400.

text: Australia[edit]

text: In Australian rugby league seasons were initially between eight (in the event of Kangaroo tours) and sixteen games long, so that a very bad team could go through a season with only losses. As a result of the expansion of the NSWRL from 1947 onwards, the season has been lengthened gradually with a few intermissions. The following NSWRL teams up to 1966 did not win a single game:

text:
Season
Team
Wins
Losses
Draws
Remarks

1966
Easts
0
18
0
Longest winless season in NSWRL/NRL history. Last season with 18 games: in 1967 the season expanded to 22.
Sequence of 29 winless games from Round 13 of 1965.

1946
Souths
0
14
0
Lost 22 successive games after the death of Alf Blair during the 1944/1945 off-season.

1937
University
0
8
0
Team disbanded after season shortened by Kangaroo tour, having won only one game in three years (13–11 against St. George in the last round of 1936).

1935
University
0
16
0
Lost 42 consecutive games after winning 4–3 in opening game of 1934

1921
University
0
8
0
Kangaroo tour shortened season.
Won only one game in initial season of 1920 for a combined 1–20 record.

1920
Annandale
0
13
0
Disbanded at end of season after having won only one game (8–5 against Norths) in three seasons.

1918
Annandale
0
14
0
Sequence of 27 winless games: won only twice in last four seasons

text: Since 1967, NSWRL and later NRL seasons have been between 22 and 26 games long; thus it is much less likely a very bad team could lose every single one of its games.

text: Rugby union[edit]

text: Super Rugby, the Southern Hemisphere's principal club competition, has seen two teams go through an entire season with no wins or draws. Both seasons were in the competition's past incarnations of Super 12 and Super 14, each name reflecting the number of competing teams.

text: Under both Super 12 (1996–2005) and Super 14 (2006–2010) formats, each team played all other teams once, resulting in seasons of 11 and then 13 games. The competition became Super Rugby with the addition of a 15th team in 2011. The season format was also heavily revamped; the regular season now consists of 16 matches.

text: The Super 12 and Super 14 eras each saw one team finish a season with only losses; both teams with this dubious distinction are from South Africa. In 2002, the Bulls, based in Pretoria, finished with 11 losses from 11 matches. The other imperfect season was that of the Johannesburg-based Lions in the final season of the Super 14 format in 2010, who lost all 13 of their matches, while ending up with a final points difference of negative 300.

text: Cricket[edit]

text: County cricket[edit]

text: In English first-class county cricket, which has a history dating back to the early nineteenth century and was until the middle twentieth century up to the highest standard of the game, seasons have varied in length. Before the 1880s, they were generally less than ten matches in length and some "first-class" counties played only against one or two different opponents, so that a team losing all its games was not uncommon. Between 1887 and 1929, seasons were gradually increased in length to a standard twenty-eight matches for all counties. However, because of the development and popularity of one-day cricket, seasons have been reduced to twenty-four games in 1969 and twenty in 1972, though this was increased by two in 1977 and 1983. With an increase to four days for all games, sixteen or seventeen games have been played since 1993.

text: Also, because of improvements to pitches via the heavy roller and covering to protect from rain, the proportion of games "drawn" (not finished) has steadily risen since the 1870s.

text: Only two county teams have ever finished a season with only losses in a program of eight or more games:

text:
English First-Class County Teams Losing Every Game (qualification 8 or more games)

Season
Team
Wins
Losses
Draws
Remarks

1884
Derbyshire
0
10
0
Won only three games from 1884 to 1887
Lost every game in 1887, but played only six games

1920
Derbyshire
0
17
0
One match, against Nottinghamshire, was abandoned without a ball bowled

text: Teams losing or drawing every game in a first-class county season have been rather less exceptional, though by no means frequent:[21]

text:
Other English First-Class County Teams with No Wins in a Season (qualification 8 or more games)

Season
Team
Wins
Losses
Draws
Remarks

1865
Yorkshire
0
6
2
Were to have an amazing rise due to the discovery of deadly fast bowlers Freeman and Emmett, winning every game in 1867.

1871
Surrey
0
9
4

1877
Sussex
0
7
1

1886
Derbyshire
0
8
1
Was demoted from first-class status between 1888 and 1893

1897
Derbyshire
0
9
7
Lost two games by one wicket to power clubs Lancashire and Yorkshire

1900
Hampshire
0
16
6
Lost star batsman Robert Poore to the Boer War

1901
Derbyshire
0
13
7

1910
Somerset
0
15
3
Lost star bowler Bill Greswell to business in Ceylon.
Two-year record in 1910 and 1911 was one win, 28 losses and five draws

1924
Derbyshire
0
13
11

1928
Worcestershire
0
19
11
Most matches and most losses by any winless county team.
Played 54 county matches without a win between June 1927 and May 1929.

1936
Northamptonshire
0
9
15
Did win one game against Sussex under "one-innings" rules after first two days washed out by rain

1937
Northamptonshire
0
16
8
Lost star batsman Fred Bakewell to a car crash and bowler "Nobby" Clark to loss of form

1938
Northamptonshire
0
17
7
Ninety-nine County Championship matches without a win between 14 May 1935 and 29 May 1939

1967
Nottinghamshire
0
4
24
Only team to be winless without finishing bottom
24 drawn matches is most in county cricket history; four finished games is fewest in a season of more than sixteen games

1979
Glamorgan
0
10
11

1982
Warwickshire
0
8
14
Alvin Kallicharran was leading run-scorer in country, but bowling exceptionally weak with average of over 45 runs per wicket

1996
Durham[22]
0
12
5
Won only one match in any competition (four-day or one) against a first-class opponent

2008
Surrey
0
5
10
First Division[23]

2008
Gloucestershire
0
5
11
Second Division[23]

2009
Worcestershire
0
10
6
First Division[24]

2013
Leicestershire
0
8
8
Second Division[25]

2014
Northamptonshire
0
12
4
First Division[26]

2014
Leicestershire
0
10
6
Second Division. First back-to-back winless seasons by a county since the Second World War.[26]

text: There were no completely winless seasons in the Sunday League limited-overs competition during its history from 1969 to 2009.

text: International first-class cricket[edit]

text: With the exception of the Sheffield Shield since the 1970s, most first-class cricket competitions outside England have either been knock-outs or of such short length that it becomes an everyday occurrence for a team to lose all its games. Some, such as the Ranji Trophy and most seasons of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, have indeed been knockout competitions, which typically use first innings lead to decide if a match is unfinished.

text: There have still be some notable winless sequences in non-English first-class cricket:

text:
in the 1981–1982 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, Karachi lost all nine of its matches[27]
between 1959–1960 and 1986–1987, Jammu and Kashmir played a total of 115 games without a win[28]

tag: ul

text: International one-day and Twenty20 cricket[edit]

text: In the 2012–13 season of the Australian Big Bash League, the Sydney Thunder completed an imperfect season where they lost all their eight games despite possessing the likes of Chris Gayle.

text: Netball[edit]

text: In the ANZ Championship, which formed out of the old Commonwealth Bank Trophy in 2008, seasons have been thirteen games. There has so far been one winless season, by the Central Pulse from Wellington (formed as a combination of the Wellington Shakers and Western Flyers)[29] in the opening 2008 season. They did earn one point when a game was abandoned due to a leaking roof. The Pulse were to win only one game each in 2009[30] and 2010, thus having a record of 2–36 after three seasons.

text: Association football[edit]

text: Only two teams are known to have completed a season with no victories or draws. Antigua Barracuda lost all 26 matches of the 2013 USL Pro, while in the 2015-16 season, English non-league team Longford AFC, played a 30-game season in the Gloucestershire Northern Senior League Division Two (14th tier on the English pyramid), losing all their matches after the majority of their players and manager left. In the 2010–11 Ukrainian Second League (3rd tier on the Ukrainian pyramid), FC Veres Rivne lost all 14 out of 22 scheduled games before being expelled from the league due to failure of payment of league dues; in addition, they also did not score a single goal at home.

text: In top-level domestic league football however, few teams have completed their respective seasons without winning a game. In the 2010–11 Serbian SuperLiga, FK Čukarički Stankom played an entire season winless, drawing five matches and losing 25 in a 30-game season, giving them only 5 points and finishing bottom in a field of 16. The team also only scored ten goals whilst conceding 65.

text: In the Bulgarian A Professional Football Group, which is the top tier of association football in the European country, three teams have all played a season without winning, with those being Torpedo Ruse (four draws out of 22 matches during 1951), Rakovski Ruse (one draw out of 30 matches during 1996/97) and Chernomorets Burgas Sofia (also one draw out of 30 matches during 2006/07). Chernomorets were however the worse performing out of these, conceding 131 goals with only eight in reply (the same number scored as Rakovski Ruse in their winless season), they still however completed the season with a minus 2 points total, because they violated a rule concerning not being able to field enough youth players.

text: In the 1946-47 Allsvenskan, the Swedish Football League season of 1946-47 with 22 games played, Billingsfors IK tied 3 games and lost 19, the only team in Swedish football history never to win even one single Allsvenskan game.

text: In the 1999–2000 Vyshcha Liha, the highest division of Ukrainian football championship, FC Zirka Kirovohrad tied 9 matches and lost 21 out of 30.

text: The open high frequency of draws in association football, coupled with the relatively long length of seasons and promotion and relegation system used in a majority of jurisdictions to automatically remove the lowest performing teams from any given league, makes winless seasons less likely to occur.

text: Ice hockey[edit]

text: Winless seasons occurred frequently in the Ukrainian Hockey Championship, the top-level ice hockey league in Ukraine. The longest series belongs to HK Dniprovski Vovky who lost all 30 games in the regulation time in the 2007–08 season. SDYuShOR Sokil, the academy team of HC Sokil Kyiv, had three winless seasons (1999–2000, 2004–05, and 2006–07). Four more teams completed a season without winning a single game: Ivars Kyiv lost all 12 games in 1996–97, Kryzynka II, the second team of HK Kryzynka Kiev (playing in the same league as the main team), tied 1 and lost 13 games out of 14 in 1998-99, HC Khimik Sieverodonetsk lost all 16 games in 2003–04, and VIM-Berkut lost all 10 games in 2009–10.

text: Notes[edit]

text: a In the 1944 under-19 wartime competition that replaced the senior competition between 1942 and that season due to the player drain of World War II, South Fremantle lost all nineteen of their games.