Snooker World Champion, Johnson Higgins Declares the Ban as the Hardest part of his entire Life
John Higgins, the three times snooker world champion said that the six-months ban he had to face for not reporting the match fixing approach made to him was perhaps the hardest time of his entire life. Higgins, who is returning back to the sport while participating
into the UK Championships going to start from 4th of December and for which he had been a champion and runner-up in two tournaments, was talking to an international sports news channel.
Commenting upon the time he had to remain away from the sport the guy said that it was something he would have to live with the rest of his life and nobody needed to remind him again regarding the incident. He expressed the hopes that dark days were over
and now was the time to concentrate on moving forward.
Higgins, the great snooker player, had been suspended from the sport back in May amid the match fixing allegations made against him by the newspapers around the world. However, later on the guy was cleared during a disciplinary hearing held in September.
Though he had been declared innocent, he admitted brining the game into disrepute by not informing the authorities about the match fixing approach made towards him. During the initial hearings, the snooker player had been fined 75000 pounds and was banned
for six months time.
After resuming back with the game, the 35-years old impressive player has won a tournament held in Germany and has managed to reach into the final of another event held in Prague. The coming UK championships going to be held in Telford on 4th
of December would be perhaps the first major competition he would participate into after returning back to the game.
Recalling the time he had to spend away from the professional snooker, Higgins said: “it’s been the hardest six months of my life, but it’s great to get my cue back out and be talking about forthcoming events, as there were times when you may be think
that might not happen again – it’s given me new focus.”
The widely admired player among the snooker fans admitted before the media that when the decision over his future was being made, there came the times when he did not know whether he would be able to persuade with a career in his favourite sport or not.
He further stated that while stuck in such kind of situation, one just could not predict about what was going to happen, one can only hope and pray for the judges to come with the right decision.
Sharing his sufferings Higgins said that time after imposition of a ban was equally tough for the rest of his family as the emotional set back after the incident culminated in worsening the health of his father. However, the guy was happy that his family
was always been there besides him for through thick and thin.
Commenting upon his removal from the game for six months Higgins said that though the incident had caused him to lose admiration before many of his spectators (even though he was later proved innocent) the ban definitely served as a wake-up call for the
entire sporting community. “Some people out there will never change what they think but everybody has their own choice and I have got to respect that” said the snooker player.
He hoped from the other players to remain vigilant being professional sportsmen. Stating his opinion he went on saying that may be a lot of players did not have an idea about the boundaries, but after his case all the uncertain terms had definitely become
crystal clear.
In an effort to undo the frustration the allegations had brought to Higgins, Barry Heam, the chairman for World Snooker said:
“we welcome him with open arms”. The chairman also stated his hopes that whole sport had learned a lesson from what Higgins had been through.
“No one would like to go through what John had to face and the way snooker as a game suffered, but I believe that there is a huge amount of benefit going to come out for the sport from that painful incident”
Concluded the chairman.
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