World Cup Snooker 2011: Thailand stages first mega event in July at World Trade Centre in Bangkok
Thailand, with the coordination of World Snooker, will stage the first proper snooker world cup since 1996 from July 11 to 17, 2011 at the World Trade Centre in Bangkok.
The PTT-EGAT World Cup Snooker 2011, also named as the King’s Cup, will feature 40 cueists from 19 countries.
The PTT-EGAT World Cup Snooker 2011 is sponsored by Thailand’s energy company, PTT, along with the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, EGAT. The event will feature 20 two-man teams representing 19 countries from around the world. The total prize money for the winning team is £433,750.
The World Cup will be played on the basis of the round-robin algorithm, also called all-play-all, in which each member of a team will meet with an equivalent member of the other team and their individual performance in a match will affect the overall result. Eight teams are seeded at the event based on the world rankings of the respective players.
Barry Hearn, chairman World Snooker, is excited and ready to organise 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.
The return of the World Cup Snooker will surely glorify the game. In a statement, World Snooker said, “To stage a World Cup would be tremendously exciting for snooker and we are delighted to be working towards this alongside our colleagues in Thailand.”
The chairman of the organising committee Suwat Liptapanlop said, “I'm delighted that Thailand has again received the rights to host the Snooker World Cup. Our plan is for this competition to continue to be held in Thailand every two years. We will invite the world's top snooker players to compete in the tournament. It is an event not to be missed by snooker fans everywhere.”
The nations participating in World Cup Snooker 2011 are Wales, Scotland, England, China, Australia, Northern Ireland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Thailand, Germany, Brazil, Belgium, Malta, Poland, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Egypt and UAE. As the host nation, Thailand will take part in the event with two teams.
The tournament is going to be staged after 15 years of its dormancy since 1996. It has been organised with different names since 1979 as World Challenge Cup (1979-1980), World Team Classic (1981-1983), World Cup (1985-1996) and Nations Cup (1999-2001), but it was discontinued due to sponsorship problems and the fact that ITV refused to televise it further.
Tags: