World champion John Higgins criticises new format of 2011 UK Championship – Snooker news
Current world snooker champion, John Higgins, has criticised higher authorities of revising the playing format of 2011 UK Championship. The defending UK champion believes the snooker authorities have ruined the UK Championship by changing the format of the
event. The tournament is the second most watched snooker event around the world.
Last season, world snooker chief, Barry Hearn, announced a change in the UK event’s format of play. He swapped the best-of-17 frames match rule with best-of-11 frames to avoid any possibility of spectators getting bored. The decision was basically made for
television viewers, who were quite less in numbers due to the long-format slow matches.
Upon this decision, the Scotsman persists that Hearn had previously agreed he will not make any changes in the game’s crown jewels, as he conducted some experiments to popularise the sport around the world. In order to achieve his goal, Hearn not only introduced
some new tournaments but also changed existing form of play for some events.
However, the four-time world champion reckons that the changes, in this year’s £625,000 UK Championship format at the Barbican Centre, have been made keeping television in mind. The Wizard of Wishaw fears that the UK event has now lost its identity clearly
due to these little differences.
Speaking to local media, Higgins said, “Apparently it's for TV coverage, but I think some players should have been consulted for their thoughts. To be able to play best of 17s I would gladly have given up my automatic place in the draw and played a qualifier
somewhere else first to get it down to 16 players.”
The Scottish added, “A lot of the players are mystified. I do think it has ruined the prestige of the tournament. And I also believed this was one of the events that wasn't going to be touched, along with the World Championship. Maybe Barry could have negotiated
a bit more with the BBC over it.”
UK Championship is the second biggest snooker tournament after the World Snooker Championship and has returned to its former home, the York Barbican Centre. The upcoming UK event, starting from December 3, is 27th edition of the tournament after
it became a ranking event.
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