Bahrain Snooker Championships

Cue Sport to Hit the Middle East With a New Event Announced

Aug 19, 2008

As snooker looks to go global, officials are introducing a new tournament in the snooker world. The honour of hosting the event has been bestowed upon Bahrain

Today, it was announced that Bahrain would be hosting its first ever ranking event on the snooker calendar. The move has come as World Snooker aim to expand the sport into a global game, where events have more competitors from outside the British Isles and China.

New Snooker Event

Manama, the capital city of Bahrain, will play host to the new snooker tournament between 8th and 15th November. The new event will contain a total of 38 entrants that will consist of: the world’s top 16 players, as well as 16 qualifiers and an extra six local wild cards. The inclusion of these wild cards will only help in bringing the level of Middle East snooker up to world class standard, thus expanding the game around the globe. A point that World Snooker’s chairman, Sir Rodney Walker, was quick to make at the press conference today, saying, “This is a major step in our strategy to make professional snooker a global sport”.

Snooker Greats to Miss Bahrain Event

Despite the wild hysteria surrounding the new tournament, sadly, four of the sport’s top players will be unable to compete in the inaugural Bahrain Snooker Championship. John Higgins, Mark Selby, Ding Junhui and snooker legend Steve Davis will not be in Bahrain due to other commitments. The tournament is taking place on the same week when these four players are due to be participating in the Premier Snooker League. Contracts for the Premier Snooker league have been in place since April of this year, as well as the dates of the competition. Therefore, one finds it amazing that such a clash as occurred, a fact that shocked Premier Snooker League promoter, Barry Hearn, as he said, “I am very disappointed and I can’t understand why World Snooker hasn’t discussed dates with us”.

Snooker’s Financial Crisis

Many will see the announcement of this new event as a glimmer of light at the end of a dark tunnel. Only two weeks ago the snooker world was dealt a massive blow when 888.com pulled out of being the sponsor for the World Championships, whilst still having two years to run on the current deal. As well as that, the Wembley Masters was also left without a sponsor as Saga Insurance announced it would no longer be backing the tournament. With this devastating news, it was time to begin counting the cost. It is estimated that the loss of these two sponsors could end up costing the game of snooker a staggering £1.5m.

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