War of words between Mark Allen and Barry Hearn: 2011 UK Championship
During his first-round matches at the York Barbican Centre, Mark Allen criticised Hearn for changing the 2011 UK Championship playing format from the traditional best-of-17 frames match to best-of-11 frames matches. The snooker boss changed the playing format
of snooker’s second biggest event 18 months ago, after he was appointed the chairman of World Snooker.
The Pistol mentioned Hearn’s promise that he would not touch the format of ‘triple crown’, the UK Championship, Masters event and the World Snooker Championship, and said that Hearn did not keep his word.
Allen spoke to the media and said, “When Barry came in, one of the first things he said was that the World Championship, UK and Masters wouldn’t be touched. Only 18 months later, the UK format has changed.”
The Antrim potter added, “Barry's just there to make money for himself, it doesn't matter about the players. The whole tradition of the game is going to pot. He (Hearn) needs to get away from the darts factor. It's getting close to that. I think in the long
run he'll probably do good for snooker, but not for my generation. It's time to let someone else have a go.”
Allen also feared that Hearn would tweak the World Snooker Championship too, after spoiling the UK Championship.
Barry Hearn was offended by the comments made by Allen and stated that he was quite disappointed by the 25-year-old’s remarks and he felt it as a personal attack. Hearn hit back on the comments made by Northern Ireland’s Allen and described him as a silly
little boy.
The 63-year-old Hearn replied to Allen’s words that he was too busy to worry about a silly boy’s silly little comments. Hearn reckoned that things change with time and it is a shame that the cueman’s remarks have overshadowed the 2011 UK Championship.
Hearn was made chairman by the consent of snooker players, 18 months ago. Since then, he has made a number of prominent changes in snooker events like Players Tour Championship (PTC) and the UK Championship. The snooker chief also introduced some new events,
such as Australian Goldfields Open and Power Snooker.
Hearn firmly believes that the changes he made in the formats of certain tournaments have brought more people towards the game. The ratings have gone up, ticket sales is about 50 percent higher than that of last year and more people are now attracted towards
the game.
The basic purpose behind Hearn’s actions was only to promote the game as much as they can, not only in Europe but in other parts of the globe as well. All the changes he made and the new events he introduced resulted in an immense increase of viewers of
the game across the world. Especially, introducing quick formatted events like Power Snooker has brought youngsters to the arena.
Before Hearn joined World Snooker as chairman, the game of snooker was considered a sport for old people. Young generation did not like the sport much due to its time consumption and slow nature of play, but now with short and quick formats, Hearn’s idea
has achieved a huge success around the world.
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