Barry Hearn determined to add more events in snooker calendar – Snooker News
Snooker governing body, World Snooker had only six major ranking events in the calendar before the recent chairman Barry Hearn joined the association in 2009. Now the body is governing up to 30 snooker events in the schedule, thanks to Hearn and his drastic
steps to promote the game.
However, there is more coming from the organisation as Hearn is still hungry and is determined to fill the year with snooker tournaments.
The snooker chief recently added three more events in the list of Players Tour Championship (PTC) series.
These three events will be held in China with a separate Order of Merit and the same ranking points as the European PTCs had. With the addition of these three PTC events, the series will become the biggest snooker series in a calendar having 15 sub-events.
That is not all, as the association has added another major ranking snooker tournament in the season calendar with the title, International Snooker Championship, which will be launched in China every year.
With the new event, China will host five major ranking snooker events in the season comprising of the Wuxi Classic, the Shanghai Masters, the World Open, the China Open and the newly added International Snooker Championship. Hearn still hungers to add more
major ranking titles in the calendar to make the players busy all the time.
While speaking to the media about his ambitions, Hearn said, “Burnout? Don't make me laugh. Tell the guy who goes down the mines you're getting burnout, you might get a good reply.”
The snooker boss added, “These players are getting well paid now, they've got a fantastic opportunity. They shouldn't be tired. I couldn't have less sympathy. I've got two weeks in the calendar to fill. I will leave Christmas alone, but I'd love to put on
a big ranking event in the UK in the other one.”
Meanwhile, the former three-time World Snooker Champion, Ronnie O’Sullivan said that he will spare time for himself despite the addition of new snooker events.
The Rocket believes that the players should be give some free time to spend with their family and friends, especially for their own health because he had to pull out of the World Open as he was ill due to not having much rest at all.
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