10 Rule Changes That Should Be Made In Sport
Sport needs more common sense, not just technology.
At some point during our time watching or playing sport, we have all found ourselves challenging a decision that has been made by officials before an event has taken place or by referees in the midst of a match.
It can be infuriating when there is a considerable sense of injustice surrounding an incident and it probably contributes to why sport is so popular around the world but that has never stopped calls for changes to be made by the rule-makers in each sport.
Over the past decade, goal-line technology has been introduced in football and hawk-eye has been introduced at many of the tennis tournaments being played around the world but we are still some way away from having common sense prevail in all of the leading sports.
Some will argue that sport should remain in its purest form and that too much technology or too many amendments to current regulations are unnecessary but we have reached a point where every decision by a referee or official is being scrutinised.
With that in mind, we have compiled a list of 10 suggestions that would improve and bring more equality to sport should they be introduced in the future.
10. Players Timed Between Points In Tennis
Tennis players are supposed to have 20 seconds between points at Grand Slam tournaments and 25 seconds on their respective tours but we frequently see servers getting away with taking longer as they go through their own personal routine.
That should be deemed acceptable if the two players have just completed an exhausting 20-shot rally but not if either player has dominated the previous point.
Time-violation warnings are sometimes given out by the umpire but depending on the official, they can be enforced after the first warning or the third. There is little consistency and there have been examples in the past where it has generally been accepted that a couple of the biggest names in the sport don't fall foul of this rule as often as they should.
Players can be timed by umpires but the rules for going over the time limit are not strictly enforced. A clock that is visible to supporters would only encourage countdowns when players are close to exceeding the limit but a timing method should be introduced where umpires are made accountable when they give too much leeway to players continually breaking the rules.