Filed under: Other Sports, Snooker
It's fair to suggest that Barry Hearn isn't a happy man right now. He's experiencing a few teething troubles in his attempts to drag snooker into a brave new world, and it could have serious ramifications for its future growth.While he is pulling out all the stops in an effort to help increase the sport's global appeal, the World Snooker supremo feels he's simply not receiving the required level of support from the players. He would appear to have a point.
Hearn has seen fit to outline his disenchantment in the light of the significant number of prominent no-shows for the forthcoming Brazilian Masters, an event he feels is pivotal in opening the game up to the potentially huge South American market.
Yet he has met with at best apathy from several top names, the same individuals who he claims only recently were in open revolt over the lack of tournaments which had previously seen them go weeks on end without meaningful competition.
That is a complaint more than addressed by Hearn in the past 12 months since he effectively took charge of running the game, and in a strongly-worded letter to the players he has left them in little doubt as to his feelings, insisting it's time to start treating their participation in the sport as a profession, not a hobby.
Bemoaning a who's who of who's not there, he wrote: "The fact that Mark Williams, John Higgins, Ding Junhui, Neil Robertson, Stephen Maguire, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Judd Trump, Mark Allen and Matthew Stevens have all declined their invitation to Brazil is very disappointing.
"A year ago all these players were moaning about lack of tournaments and yet now I'm getting excuses ranging from 'I think I'm worth a few more bob' to 'I do not want to be away from the wife and children'.
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Source: http://www.fanhouse.co.uk/2011/08/15/snooker-teething-troubles-for-barry-hearns-brave-new-world/
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