Barry Hearn believes new snooker events in China are inevitable – Snooker News
World Snooker Chairman, Barry Hearn is quite active again this season to reform the game for the fans and the players. Recently, China has become the focal point of the snooker governing body, World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA)
and the organisation is planning a couple of major tournaments in the next snooker season.
Barry Hearn has made some important announcements at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield during the semi-final encounters of the 2012 World Snooker Championship. The snooker chief introduced a new major ranking event, the International Snooker Championship,
which will be launched in China next season.
Besides, the pre existing non-ranking invitational snooker competition, the Wuxi Classic has been given the status of major ranking event after witnessing a superb feedback from the people of China and fans across the world. Meanwhile, three more events
are added in the Players Tour Championship series which will be held in China.
The increasing popularity of snooker in China is the basic reason behind the making of such drastic decisions. It can be clearly seen that the game is spreading equally throughout the world especially in Asia and is going beyond the UK boundaries for the
first time. Hearn has played a massive role in promoting the sport to this extent and he believes that the presence of snooker in China has become inevitable.
While speaking to the media, Hearn said, “You couldn't rule it out because you could never say never. The game is on the up at the moment but China's the highest profile because everyone fears the whole thing's going off to China. That's not going to happen.”
The snooker chief added, “What we do say, as controlling the professional game of snooker, we believe that the Crucible is our Wimbledon. Whilst you can never say never, while we've got the support of everyone we're staying where we are.”
The former World Snooker Champion, Stephen Hendry also reckoned that it has become necessary for snooker to go beyond the European boundaries. It will be exciting to see what type of impact these new tournaments will have on increasing awareness of snooker
in Asia.
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