Thailand ready to stage Snooker World Cup – Snooker news
Thailand is all set to stage the first proper Snooker World Cup since 1996 from July 11 to 17, this year. According to World Snooker, the board is in the advance stages of discussion with Thailand Billiard Sports Association to conduct the glorious mega
event in Bangkok. They are likely to announce details in the next week.
The tournament is going to be staged after 15 years of its dormancy since 1996. It has been organised with different names since 1979 – World Challenge Cup (1979, 1980), World Team Classic (1981-1983), World Cup (1985-1996) and Nations Cup (1999-2001). The
event discontinued due to sponsorship problems as ITV also refused to televise it further.
The Snooker World Cup 1985 was held at Bournemouth International Centre, Bournemouth, Dorset, England. The last edition of the mega event was organised at Amari Watergate Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand, in 1996. It is scheduled according to the round-robin algorithm,
also called all-play-all, in which each member of a team meets with equivalent member of the other team and their individual performance in a match affects the overall result.
The World Cup 2011 will feature 20 two-man teams representing 19 countries from around the world. The criteria of selecting players has not been finalised yet. Thailand is staging the Snooker World Cup as a part of their King’s 84th birthday celebrations.
The total prize money for the winning team is $700,000 (21 million baht).
The Snooker World Cup was created by Mike Watterson, a businessman, entrepreneur and snooker commentator in 1997. Mike is the one who organised the first UK championship and also brought World Snooker Championship to the Crucible.
World cup was an annual event featuring three-man teams representing their country until 1996. It changed into a four-man team event in 1999 and 2000 with the name, ‘the
Nations Cup’. However, in 2001, it was re-changed into a three-man team contest. It is the one and only ‘team event’ in the game of snooker.
Barry Hearn, chairman World Snooker Ltd, is excited and ready to re-launch the mega event. The Billiard Sports Association of Thailand and the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association have jointly sanctioned the tournament to be organised by
BEC-Tero Entertainment.
Though snooker is an individual sport, some players do know how to play for the team. The last edition of the World Cup held in Bangkok was won by Scotland’s dream team comprising of Stephen Hendry, John Higgins and Alan McManus. If the World Cup returns,
it is going to be a good sign for the game’s future as well.
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