Heather du Plessis-Allan: Stop letting tech disrupt sport

Hasn’t the AI and Wimbledon drama taught us exactly the same lesson we keep learning with technology and sport: it’s great - if it doesn’t disrupt the game. 

And if that is the lesson, why don’t we learn it already? 

Wimbledon has not used AI properly. 

First problem was it missed a ball out. By a foot. The match got stopped and everyone waited four minutes. Yes, it was confirmed the AI got it wrong, so the match resumed. 

It turned out someone turned the AI off. 

Then we’re at the quarter finals. AI calls a ball out. It's not. It’s a metre inside the baseline.  

The match is stopped, the umpire calls the tech people, or whoever, and everyone waits. Yes, it's confirmed it was in and the match resumes. 

It turns out a ball boy was crossing the net at exactly the moment the ball was moving and the AI can’t handle that. 

Players are cross. The waiting has broken the game’s momentum.  

The crowd is cross. They’ve paid to watch the play, not sit around waiting for tech to be checked. 

On the other side of the world, here, we are again complaining about the TMO in last weekend’s test involving itself too much. 

Even Wayne Barnes is complaining that the TMO is ruining the continuity of the game. 

Other sports have already learned this lesson. 

League has limited what the bunker can look at, football is thinking about limiting the VAR, ice hockey has limited video review and it's the same with volleyball. 

They all know what Wimbledon hasn’t quite managed to do and rugby can’t quite seem to accept, which is that technology is great. 

But don’t let it disrupt the game. Don’t let it keep fans waiting. 

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