Once in way, pretty much as rare as finding a four leaf clover, sports officials get something right. A sensible rider to a law or a rectification of a long overdue and glaring flaw...surprise!

Earlier this month the International Hockey Federation finally woke up to the fact that the game is now held at ransom by penalty corner specialists and there is no joy in rushing about the field if you are going to surrender all that display of skill in getting the ball past half a dozen of the opposition to end up with a deliberate dribble of the ball onto the foot of the defender and then have the specialist whack it into the goal of a penalty corner. Now, it’s two points (or goals) for a field shot and one for a goal from the corner. Somebody up there finally had an epiphany and hockey might now come out of the choke hold it has been suffering and breathe again.

Another smart move was to order Premier League soccer players to leave the field if they had a head injury and this season it is mandated and the affected player has to visit the tunnel doctor before rejoining the team. And that’s after the club doctor and not the management gives it the okay. This safety parameter was activated in the last season after public outrage over Tottenham’s keeper Hugo Lloris playing on even though he’d lost consciousness in a collision with teammate Kyle Walker in a match with Everton. Now, coaches and managers have no say and it is a medical decision and it should be the norm in every league in the world what with players now literally playing sans frontieres.

By the measure of common sense here are my peeves over current conditions that need to be revisited and some of them are with regard to the fresh tweaks recently announced.

The limit of three Hawkeye challenges per set in tennis makes very little sense. If you think that players might misuse them if they were more largely to break the rhythm of play then fine, let the umpire have the discretion to summon a Hawkeye replay and make the decision. It’s unfair to see a ball whizz out to a bad call and witness a hapless player lose a crucial point because he or she has no challenges left.

The new rule making bowlers give free hits for every no ball in limited over cricket might reduce the beamers but with the dice loaded against the bowlers in these formats, there is even more burden on the guy with the ball while the batsmen have no such punishing restrictions. It’s a fallacy that fans come to see sixes being hit and the truth is that so many free hits will make the six dreary and its familiarity will breed contempt.

Also, not in favor of the newly minted add on in soccer that an off side call is now extended to any interference even if the players don’t touch each other. This severe restriction also open to interpretation by referees will make the end run that much more placid in a game that is becoming less robust by the season. Maybe there should be an exhibition match without offside and see how it goes.

But if there is really a grotesque rule it is the false start dismissal in athletics. Once error and you are out. We all know what happened to Usain Bolt in the 2011 World Championships and those distilled ten seconds between starter’s orders and the gun are probably sport’s most agonizing in terms of tension. Anybody can push off prematurely and surely the two offense system needs to be brought back. Be fair. This way you are robbing athletics of its stars and fans of its fun.

But then, isn’t that the goal of officials? To sit on the cake as David Niven said, and wreck the party.