Hearn urges Chinese to 'create your own history'

0 Comment(s)Print E-mail Shanghai Daily, April 14, 2017
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 Barry Hearn.



World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn has told Chinese officials to "create your own history" as the sport continues to grow in popularity in Asia.

The World Championship gets under way tomorrow at the Crucible Theatre, with this year's edition marking the 40th anniversary of its move to Sheffield in northern England.

But the increasing popularity of snooker in China and the growth in the number of Chinese players in the World Championship's main draw, led many to conclude it was just a matter of time before the tournament headed to the Far East.

However, Hearn, a Londoner who made his name in sports promotion in the 1980s as the manager of six-time world champion Steve Davis, agreed a deal last May that will see the World Championship remain at the Crucible until at least 2027.

Hearn travelled to China in April for talks with the country's snooker officials, with five major tournaments attracting the world's leading players taking place there this season.

There had been talk of Chinese snooker bosses wanting to stage the World Championship in an exact replica of the Crucible but these proposals have been shelved now that the event is remaining in Sheffield for another 10 years.

"The game has grown so huge in China it's inevitable they were going to make an approach, and someone else might have taken the easy route and just taken the money," Hearn said yesterday. "There's nothing stopping them having huge events in China. It doesn't have to be the World Championship."

He added: "My message to the Chinese was to ‘build your own, create your own history, you can't buy history'."

No Chinese player has yet won the world title but Ding Junhui reached last year's final before losing to England's Mark Selby.

There are five Chinese players in the first round of this year's World Championship, with two teenage rising stars — Yan Bingtao and Zhou Yuelong — making their Crucible debuts this year after coming through qualifying.

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