PDC Have Scrapped Controversial Rule For Players at World Darts Championship

The PDC have scrapped a controversial rule for players at the World Darts Championship.

The third round of the tournament gets underway on December 27 after a short break over Christmas.

A number of top players have already been eliminated, including Gerwyn Price, James Wade and Danny Noppert.

Reigning champion Luke Littler, Luke Humphries and Michael van Gerwen are all safely through, with Humphries only losing one leg in his 3-0 win over Singapore's Paul Lim in round two.

Elsewhere, 2015 and 2016 champion Gary Anderson takes on Jermaine Wattimena in a match that will benefit from a change to the PDC's regulations.

Previously, players were banned from wearing the same colour of shirt in World Championship matches, with the lower-ranked players having to bring two shirts to Alexandra Palace in case of a kit clash.

Both Anderson and Wattimena wear black shirts, though Wattimena has plain blue sleeves and Anderson has a checked sleeve pattern.

Jonny Tata and Ryan Meikle both wore black shirts during their round two clash (Image: PDC/Sky Sports)

Under previous regulations, Wattimena - who started the tournament as the 19th seed compared to Anderson at 15 - would have to change his shirt for the match.

But former PDC tour card holder Matthew Edgar has revealed why that is no longer the case.

On his YouTube channel, 'Edgar TV', the Doncaster-born dartist explains: "When I played Michael van Gerwen, who we know wears green all the time, and back then I used to wear a green polo shirt.

"When I played Michael van Gerwen on TV in the Players Championship Finals, I had to take with me an alternate shirt.

"This happened all the time. It got tricky when you played someone like Peter Wright, who you don't know what colour they're going to wear.

"The highest-ranked player got to choose their colour. Imagine if you're Phil Taylor playing Michael van Gerwen. World number one against world number two. You could choose to wear green. He always wears green. He would have to change.

"As darts becomes more individual, as personalities were more encouraged, and with the meetings we had alongside Barry Hearn who was saying, 'We need you to show who you are'... we need those individualities and those little bits that make our presence or familiarity. So the rule got scrapped."