FEATURED: World Cup – is it a great or a flawed idea?

A few days ago, the World Cup draw was released, where instead of the whole of England envisioning their football team to get beaten by the Marshall Islands, everyone became puzzled that there was a snooker World Cup in the first place.

But yes, this is the World Cup, where 24 pairs from 24 countries compete against each other for an expensive golden trinket, a shield and a lot of money. In a high-quality final, youngsters from the China B team Zhou Yuelong and Yan Bingtao beat Scottish pair John Higgins and Stephen Maguire 4-1 in 2015. So with 2017, out with Austria, Poland, Qatar, Singapore and UAE and in with Cyprus, Egypt, Finland, Israel and Switzerland!

We have a good mix of professionals and amateurs in the land of Wuxi.  The group draw hasn’t been completed yet, (which will be the next article) but click on this link for the list of teams: http://www.worldsnooker.com/2017-world-cup-teams/

Since the draw came out, people have been interested in the team element of it and for obvious reasons, World Snooker would love to see it carry on and advertise the World Cup as a celebration of snooker’s diversity. But has it got great potential or is it a flawed idea? That’s what I’ll be talking about today. It’s in the title for god’s sake.

PROS

• It is a brilliant springboard for lesser known players. Of course, we are aware of the high-ranking talents of Judd Trump, Neil Robertson and John Higgins but of course there are international talents in the bottom half of the rankings table such as Aditya Mehta (No. 99), Alex Borg (No. 108) and Thor Chuan Leong (No. 109). It also involves national champions to relish the international stage, such as Norwegian Christopher Watts (a 9-time national champion who has/had a magnificent beard) and Duncan Bezzina, the current Maltese amateur champion. Look at the current victors Zhou and Yan and look how well they did!

• The World Cup embraces the globalisation of the sport, something that Jason Ferguson is always proud of. Considering 21 countries are represented in the 2017/2018 snooker tour and how far it’s come since a time where there were six ranking events in a season. When unveiling the event in 2015, he said “World Cups are always fantastic events in any sport because the players feel as if they are representing a nation, and the fans in each country can get right behind their team. Snooker is usually an individual game, so to play in a team brings a new kind of pressure. The players will be striving to climb the ranking list between now and the end of the season to earn a World Cup place.”

I always love the World Cup, it's testament to the globalisation of snooker, it's great to see new teams and new talent from new nations

— jason ferguson (@jasonferguson5) June 12, 2017

• Though teams are usually involved in exhibition events, I like that it is on the proper stage. It involves more people, more teamwork where teams interrogate with each other to play to each other’s strengths. I am always a fan of different variety, which is why I like the Snooker Shoot-Out. But Barry FOR THE LOVE OF GOD do not make this a ranking event! I will not have it!

I think it is a nice different event. Surprises can always happen as we saw the last time.

— Imke Köhler (@HML1001) June 12, 2017

• If this pulls off, then the World Cup has a huge potential to be a massive success. It will take a while for the rest of the nations to reach the calibre of China and the United Kingdom, but since 12 nations are represented in the Top 64, then it could definitely happen and may even lead to different host nations. The main problem with that is the World Cup has a very checkered history of stop-starting a lot, consider it featured between 1979-1983; 1985-1990; 1996; 2011; 2015. Will this happen again?

CONS

• Let’s get this out of the way. This is a tedious, Daily Mail-esque argument in sport, regards to being eligible to represent a country. It’s happened in tennis (Johanna Konta, Aljaz Bedene) and in cricket (Matt Prior, Jonathan Trott). Now it is creeping up in snooker.
• To start off, we talk about Eden Sharav. He is indeed half-Isreali and half-Scottish and was born in Israel. But it is completely illogical that he can represent Scotland on the professional snooker tour and represent Israel in the World Cup in the same season. If someone can help me out here, I would love to hear it but in my opinion, it is not something one can pick and choose.

• This led to a fair bit of ridicule from other snooker players dusting of books of their family tree to see if they can compete for Germany instead. This does raise a number of questions though. Kurt Maflin has represented Norway since 2004 and Michael Georgiou only switched allegiances last year due to his Cypriot grandparents. Obviously, they never did this to gain entry to the World Cup, but it does show how easy it can be to represent a nation, especially a lesser-known one. Eden’s position could’ve been taken up by Israeli Amir Nardeia who reached the European U18 final last year, so it’s a tad unfair on those born and raised in their respective country. This is something World Snooker needs to clamp down urgently.

https://twitter.com/MattSelt/status/874291594362540033

• As pointed out before, there is a lack of quality in depth in many nations. There are 16 amateurs in total in this event but you have to admit on paper, Egyptian amateur duo Hatem Yassen and Basem Eltahhan won’t be a match for England duo Judd Trump and Barry Hawkins. There is a China B team because China are the hosts, but China teams are in the Top 64. This shows how far away quality-wise most nations such as Switzerland and Brazil are and who knows, there may be a dominance of winners from China and the UK, which would not look good for the globalisation of the sport.

• It’s a spanner into the “I like variety argument really.” It’s best of five frames, which is yet another tournament with another short format. It’s a bit strange since in 1996 it was a best of nineteen frames, but the short format is something that would put off a lot of the traditional fans. I wish I can say more, but I can’t, so here is a bunny.

• Most restricted events such as The Masters, Players Championship and the Champion of Champions are there for players based on merit. Those players who win the most ranking points by being among the most consistent on the circuit and those who win trophies. Zhou and Yan got to the Champion of Champions in 2015 by winning the last World Cup. That would annoy particularly English players as a majority of them wouldn’t be able to compete in the World Cup due to one England team. In some ways, you do get invited to the World Cup by ranking but it is your nationality that gets you there. The World Cup can be very selective and restrictive nowadays……

Conclusion

Lots of work to be done then. I will be following the tournament as I think it has great potential to be good, but there are a number of gaping holes here, especially regarding the criteria of how you can represent a nation and to needs to be tightened enough to be taken seriously. I am not entirely convinced it will last for the long term though. I did a two-day poll on Twitter (because you know, market research!) and almost three-quarters of respondents (72%) say they are interested in the World Cup. Yes, it is of 39 people, but if that number is good to feature in a L’Oreal advert, it is good enough for me!

Are you interested in the upcoming #snooker World Cup? https://t.co/Ey2wQgtimA

— Cluster of Reds (@clusterofreds1) June 12, 2017

Whether they are interested in the actual tournament or its progression we are not sure, but hey. We could be watching something very special or an unfortunate dud. Let’s see how it pans out! The event starts on 3rd July – 9th July.