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Ssb - hearn's global vision gathers pace
The much trailed World Cup has been confirmed for Thailand from July 11-17.
It will feature 20 two-man teams. The players for each team will be selected according to their ranking position.
For example, if the current ranking list were used this would mean John Higgins and Stephen Maguire for Scotland, Mark Selby and Shaun Murphy for England and Mark Williams and Matthew Stevens for Wales. Thailand, as host nation, will have two teams.
The event will be sponsored by PTT, the state-owned energy company, and EGAT, the electricity generating Authority of Thailand. It takes place at the World Trade Centre in Bangkok.
Barry Hearn travelled to Thailand last week to finalise details, the latest in a long line of innovations his stewardship of World Snooker has brought about in the last year.
And it gets better. World Snooker says it is in advanced discussions for a new ranking tournament outside the UK in late July. I understand this could turn out to be in Australia.
That would be a huge step forward. An Australian Open was announced way back in 1989, the only snag being that it ended up being played in Hong Kong.
Hearn clearly believes that snooker’s future rests on its global potential, which has never been properly realised.
So many countries – Canada, Dubai, Belgium, Holland and Thailand to name a few – have been visited and then dumped by previous administrations.
We saw huge crowds in Berlin for the German Masters and the last two days of the PTC Grand Finals in Dublin proved snooker is still popular in Ireland.
At this rate there will be at least ten ranking tournaments next season, plus various invitation events, including the new Brazilian Masters, and the World Cup, a picture so rosy as to have been unimaginable just two years ago.
Not content with all this, Hearn has turned his attention to Killing Cancer, a charity the governing body will support by helping to raise £250,000 over the next three years.
Surely all Barry will soon have left to tackle will be world peace...
More...
It will feature 20 two-man teams. The players for each team will be selected according to their ranking position.
For example, if the current ranking list were used this would mean John Higgins and Stephen Maguire for Scotland, Mark Selby and Shaun Murphy for England and Mark Williams and Matthew Stevens for Wales. Thailand, as host nation, will have two teams.
The event will be sponsored by PTT, the state-owned energy company, and EGAT, the electricity generating Authority of Thailand. It takes place at the World Trade Centre in Bangkok.
Barry Hearn travelled to Thailand last week to finalise details, the latest in a long line of innovations his stewardship of World Snooker has brought about in the last year.
And it gets better. World Snooker says it is in advanced discussions for a new ranking tournament outside the UK in late July. I understand this could turn out to be in Australia.
That would be a huge step forward. An Australian Open was announced way back in 1989, the only snag being that it ended up being played in Hong Kong.
Hearn clearly believes that snooker’s future rests on its global potential, which has never been properly realised.
So many countries – Canada, Dubai, Belgium, Holland and Thailand to name a few – have been visited and then dumped by previous administrations.
We saw huge crowds in Berlin for the German Masters and the last two days of the PTC Grand Finals in Dublin proved snooker is still popular in Ireland.
At this rate there will be at least ten ranking tournaments next season, plus various invitation events, including the new Brazilian Masters, and the World Cup, a picture so rosy as to have been unimaginable just two years ago.
Not content with all this, Hearn has turned his attention to Killing Cancer, a charity the governing body will support by helping to raise £250,000 over the next three years.
Surely all Barry will soon have left to tackle will be world peace...
More...
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