FEATURED: 4 Talking Points of the 2021/2022 Season

This season will be quite odd. Not only are we moving outside of Milton Keynes but also outside of Great Britain! Who knew?

Let’s cut to the chase. Here are four of my talking points of the 2021/2022 season!

Steve Dawson Takes The Reins

Barry Hearn spent 40 years managing a host of snooker players, building Matchroom Sport into a global sporting event promotions company and being involved in numerous sports worked as chairman of World Snooker Tour and the Professional Darts Corporation. But business supremo Hearn made a surprising announcement that he will retire after the 2021 World Championships. He will act as an advisor to Matchroom Sport so I doubt we won’t see the last of him. Snooker owes an incredible debt of gratitude to Hearn. He transformed snooker from a sport on its knees to a busy, engrossing and money-making global phenomenon. For that among many others we are very thankful.

No pressure on newly-appointed World Snooker chairman Steve Dawson then!

Dawson joined Matchroom Sport back in 1985 and served as Chief Executive Officer of World Snooker since June 2010. The fact he worked with Hearn for so long tells us that Dawson is a man who knows what’s what. He might not match the charisma and bravado of his predecessor, which is hard for anyone to do. But Dawson is planning to take the mantle and run with it while looking at the sport’s future direction.

Dawson said that his greatest priority after the 2021 World Championship will be getting the calendar back on track post-COVID. World Snooker had already made a start in doing this, announcing a 4-year deal to stage the Turkish Masters in Antalya. and the reintroduction of the British Open this season. It’s a good start and let’s just sit back and see what he does.

Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves … Again!

Reanne Evans and Ng On-yee have been offered the chance to turn professional from the start of the 2021/22 season with two-year tour cards. If you haven’t heard of this news, you were probably living as a hermit in a cave. This will be Evans’s second stint as a professional, while Ng will make her debut this upcoming season.

A lot of reaction to this story has largely been very positive. There are some concerns to the two leading Women’s players receiving cards and I tried to address these concerns here. But what matters now is how well Evans and Ng can perform among the best players in the world.

Maybe performing against higher-quality opposition may force these two to play better? Will more regular match practice benefit them? If they do go on a losing streak, do they have the mental strength to keep trying? There will be more attention on them and their performances. Some may be quick to judge if they go through a rough patch. But let’s give them a chance to hone their skills and see how they progress. They may cause a few upsets and take a few big scalps. Will they surprise many people or will they seriously struggle? Time will tell.

The Battle for the No. 1 Spot

We have talked to death about how successful Judd Trump has been in the last few years. Trump performed phenomenally to lift 11 ranking trophies in the last two seasons. Trump regained the No. 1 position in the rankings and has held onto that spot for almost two years now. I talked about this at great length in a recent article and you can read this by clicking here.

But his dominant position could evaporate this season. His biggest threat will undoubtedly be Mark Selby.

Selby won more ranking points (820,500) than Trump (573,500) last season, despite lifting fewer ranking trophies. This is largely helped due to Selby’s World Snooker Championship triumph, which awarded him 500,000 ranking points. What is more worrying for Trump is that he will be defending A LOT of points this season, This is because everybody will lose points from the 2019/2020 season because of how the ranking system is conducted.

Trump faces a herculean task of keeping his No. 1 position by trying to replicate the form that won him six ranking titles. Trump cannot defend his World Open and International Championship titles in 2019, as the situation in China is up in the air for obvious reasons. The Northern Ireland Open (which Trump won in 2019) starts before the English Open (which Selby won in 2019), for some odd reason. This makes Trump’s prospects on being the top of the tree more difficult. Can Trump hold off Selby? Who will be No. 1 at the end of this coming season?

Also, we need a final between these two. It’s long overdue.

Cao’s Road to Redemption

It feels as though we have been here before.

Cao Yupeng will become the second player (after Leo Fernandez) to return to the professional tour having been found guilty of match-fixing. In 2018, Cao admitted to fixing three matches in 2016 and failing to fully co-operate with the WPBSA inquiry back. He served his given suspension on 24th November 2020. The reason why his ban was lighter than expected was because he pleaded guilty and expressed remorse for his involvement. This is compared to Yu Delu, who was banned at the same time but for more serious offences. Yu is still serving his suspension and can only resume his professional playing career in February 2029.

I wrote about my thoughts on Cao and you can read them by clicking here. Cao is back on the tour with a fresh two-year card, having qualified via the CBSA China Tour. There are two questions we should ask ourselves:

The first is whether he can get his form back before he was suspended. He was in the form of his life during the 2017/2018, reaching as high as No. 38 in the world. Cao also reached two ranking final and should’ve won the 2017 Scottish Open final after surrendering a 8-4 lead. Jamie Jones, albeit he was suspended for far less serious offences, returned on tour and had a fantastic season. There is no reason why Cao can’t do the same.

The second is whether Cao would be embraced on the tour by players and fans. After all, Cao has served his sentence and now he has to gain his Top 64 status just like everyone else. But will fans forgive him? Match-fixing is a terrible and dishonest thing to do whatever the circumstances and some might not be able to see past that. Maybe the authorities are far too lenient on him? The only thing Cao can do is let his snooker do the talking.