Alex Holowczak's Snooker World Cup Idea
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by user Alex Holowczak
As an avid snooker fan, I would love to see an International Snooker Tournament.
The only such example is in Amateur Snooker, but I would love to see professionals take part in something similar.
A similar concept existed before. In the 1970s and 1980s this very format (of 3 man teams) existed and worked well – Northern Ireland, Canada, England and Wales all did well. Australia and South Africa could also compete.
In 2000, there was another attempt, the Nations’ Cup. This collapsed after a few years, since ITV pulled out of televising it. It also allowed doubles, and other such games which confused audiences.
I like trying to organise tournaments, so I had a go at trying to organise a mock Snooker World Cup.
Format
The tournament would comprise of teams of 3. Each player in a team will play each player from another team. As a result, each match will be best of 9 frames - guaranteeing a winner (this should make US fans happy!) A 9 frame match will take about 3 to 4 hours, and is as long as a standard session of snooker.
A squad can consist of more players, but the three that start have to finish each match. Every frame in a match must be played out, too.
There will be one host country for the event. For the purposes of this mock event, it will be England.
It could also have a player from the past as a captain, a la the Davis Cup.
There could be a large number of teams:
England - Ronnie O'Sullivan, Shaun Murphy, Peter Ebdon
Scotland - Stephen Hendry, John Higgins, Graeme Dott
Wales - Mark Williams, Matthew Stevens, Ryan Day
Northern Ireland - Joe Swail, Gerard Greene, Mark Allen
Ireland - Ken Doherty, Fergal O'Brien, Michael Judge
China - Ding Junhui, Tian Pengfei, Liang Wenbo
Malta - Tony Drago, Alex Borg, Joe Grech
Australia - Neil Robertson, Steve Mifsud, Ben Judge
Finland - Robin Hull, Ville Pasanen, Kimmo Lang
Belgium - Bjorn Haneever, Kevin van Hove, Jim Spapen
Canada - Alain Robidoux, Cliff Thorburn, Kirk Stevens
South Africa - Mutalieb Allie, Charl Jonck, Warren Horsely
United States - Raymond Fung, Kenny Kwok, Tom Kollins
Hong Kong - Marco Fu, Au Chi Wai, Chan Kwok Ming
Thailand - James Wattana, Kwan Poomjang, Noppadon Noppachorn
India - Pankaj Advani (India), Geet Sethi (India), Manan Chandra
The 16 teams would go into 4 groups of 4, with the top 2 of each group making the Final Group.
The groups would go, e.g. as follows…
Group A:
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England
-
Australia
-
South Africa
-
India
Group B:
Group C:
Group D:
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Ireland
-
Malta
-
Hong Kong
-
United States
Days of Play
The World Championship for Snooker (i.e. the Individual Event) takes place in Sheffield, England, and finishes on a Monday Bank Holiday. There is another one in May three weeks later.
I have devised a system lasting 19 days, which can start on the Friday after the World Championships, and that Bank Holiday Monday.
Say, e.g. that May 6 is the last day of the World Championship. As a result the Bank Holiday will be on Monday, May 27.
So…
Fri 10 May – Opening Ceremony
Sat 11 May – Group A Round 1 (Birmingham, Preston)
Sun 12 May – Group B Round 1 (York, London)
Mon 13 May – Group C Round 1 (London, Brighton)
Tue 14 May – Group D Round 1 (Preston, Liverpool)
Wed 15 May – Group A Round 2 (London, York)
Thu 16 May – Group B Round 2 (Preston, Birmingham)
Fri 17 May – Group C Round 2 (Liverpool, London)
Sat 18 May – Group D Round 2 (Birmingham, Brighton)
Sun 19 May – Group A Round 3 (London, Preston)
Mon 20 May – Group B Round 3 (York, Brighton)
Tue 21 May – Group C Round 3 (Birmingham, Liverpool)
Wed 22 May – Group D Round 3 (Preston, York)
Thu 23 May – Quarter Final 1 & 2 (London, Brighton)
Fri 24 May – Quarter Final 3 & 4 (Birmingham, Liverpool)
Sat 25 May – Semi Final 1 (Birmingham)
Sun 26 May – Semi Final 2 (London)
Mon 27 May – Final & Third Place Game (Birmingham, London)
Venues
- The Guild Hall, Preston – Hosted Grand Prix until 2006.
- National Indoor Arena, Birmingham – Would hold the biggest crowd of any stadia – not hosted a snooker tournament though.
- The Barbican Centre, York – Hosts the UK Championships, the second most prestigious tournament in the world.
- Brighton Conference Centre – Hosted the British Open until recently.
- “London” – With all the buildings in London, there must be one that can be converted to host snooker tournaments! (Royal Albert Hall, perhaps?)
- “Liverpool” – Same as London.
Times of Play
In order for the maximum number of people watching the games, they must all start in the afternoon – people will be at work from Mon-Fri bar Mon 27 May. The games will start at 6pm, and both games (if two play at once) will be played simultaneously. On Mon 27 May, the Final will start at 6pm, and the Third Place Game will have been played at 1pm.
A Mock Tournament
So, for example, the tournament could be (groups in order):
Group A:
- England -> QF1
- Australia -> QF2
- India
- South Africa
Group B:
Group C:
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Scotland -> QF3
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Northern Ireland -> QF4
-
Belgium
-
Canada
Group D:
- Ireland -> QF4
- Hong Kong -> QF3
- Malta
- United States
Quarter Finals:
- England beat
China 6-3
-
Wales beat Australia 7-2
- Scotland beat Hong Kong 6-3
- Ireland beat Northern Ireland 6-3
Semi Finals:
Third Place Playoff:
Final:
Hence:
What would this prove
United States came last in their group, and on paper, both they and Canada are the worst teams. The most incredible thing, is that the Canadian side today would have probably been the same 25 years ago! (Bar Robidoux – Werbeniuk would be in his place). That is sad, that since the Canadian snooker boom in the 1970s, those players are still the best in Canada thirty years on. Canada probably ought to be dropped for Germany, who could have got into the tournament on merit. But I figured that it would be good to have the Canadian veterans around in the 1980s (that would have played in an equivalent tournament in the 1980s!)
It does show that the USA are probably around the top 16 in the world at snooker, which actually puts it on a par with Rugby Union. United States are better at snooker than you might think. They may be ahead of India, as the Indians I chose were much better billiards players.
This surprised me. There were a lot of random countries you wouldn’t expect. Finland and Belgium, for example. Not exactly hot beds of snooker talent. Australia has always been okay, but Canada and South Africa have dived since the 1980s. Hong Kong, Malta, and other Commonwealth Nations are up there too.
China have suddenly been made aware of the game, and are going through a boom. 5 years ago, they wouldn’t have even been considered to appear in a similar tournament.
The traditional heavyweights (British Isles) would still dominate.
The idea of this sort of competition would be to try and improve the global appeal of snooker, and to bring more of a team and nationalistic aspect to the game that has not been there since the war (nationalism was important then, as it was tough to travel to Australia from England, e.g. to play a game!)
I think it would work, and that the people of the world would like to watch it. The viewing times also make it ideal in Europe. Australia and Asia will never be happy with the Time Difference problems… It should be okay for North America though. But since the tournament could rotate, e.g. to China in 2007, then Canada 2008, Malta 2009, Ireland 2010, Wales 2011, South Africa 2012, Australia 2013, Scotland 2014, Finland 2015 etc. Everyone would get a good chance to see the games over the years.
It would be uncompetitive on paper, but due to the short matches, either:
- upsets will be more frequent
- if a weak team are going to be thrashed, the pain will quickly pass
- the game will be exciting to the end
Some kind sole could even buy/donate a trophy.
The tournament would not make any fiscal losses, as since it will only be once every so often in each country, if it makes a loss in one country it will move the year after.
I think making this tournament would be a positive step for World Snooker if it was taken.
