The weirdest sporting laws

Ever been timed out in cricket for not getting your pads on quick enough? Maybe you forgot to sign your scorecard in golf and got disqualified from the tournament? Well if you have then you’ve been unlucky enough to get caught out by two of sports more unusual rules.

A new infographic has compiled some of the world’s weirdest sporting rules, scouring the rulebooks for ridiculous and long-forgotten statutes that still technically apply.

Some of the them make a little bit of sense – such as in race walking you have to have at least one foot in contact with the ground at all times otherwise it counts as running. Or that beach volleyball teams must wear different colour uniforms (not that they wear much at all).

However, other rules seem to be so niche that you wonder how they ever became an official part of the game. Just imagine losing a game of chess because the referee decides you are showing too much cleavage. We know chess is an ancient game but does it have to include rules that seem to have come straight out of the 1970s?

At some point or other, following a freakish or specific incident perhaps, these rules were officially written down and ratified. Only every now and then do they ever come up, and that’s usually in a pub quiz round.
Nevertheless, rules are there to be followed and for better or worse we all have to stick to them if we want to play the game. If we decide which of the game’s rules we follow and which we don’t then what happens?

Thanks to Sports Betting Online