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Mike Chan

The head of world snooker has said that it was always a challenge to schedule events throughout the season, given the tight, packed calendar.
The comments came after claims of “poor scheduling” from some top players during the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong.
Earlier this week, English player Kyren Wilson said he felt “disheartened and sad” about the tournament schedule after playing soon after rushing over from a tournament in Germany, before crashing out against Xiao Guodong in the first round in Hong Kong.
The loss left him outside the top 16 and cost him the chance to defend his Players Championship title.
Another Englishman, Shaun Murphy, said “I am tired” after making a less-than-48-hour trip to Hong Kong, where he lost 5-1 to China’s Pang Junxu.
Speaking exclusively to the South China Morning Post at the World Grand Prix on Thursday, Simon Brownell, CEO of World Snooker Tour (WST), explained the difficulty of scheduling events.

“It’s difficult to run a tour with 25 events and 10 sets of qualifiers, and the amount of time that our tour requires. It’s difficult to have events that are not scheduled anywhere near any other events,” he said. “We are trying to build a tour and it will continue to be difficult.
“We were unlucky we had three of the matches scheduled for the first afternoon [in Hong Kong] involving players that were playing on Sunday night [in Berlin] … this is part of live sport, it’s difficult to predict what happens.
“I think if we’re looking at this event being the outlier in that situation, that’s just simply not true. There are numerous challenges over the course of the season with regard to scheduling.”
Brownell also said it was “quite possible” that more tournaments could be moved from the United Kingdom to other parts of the world as the sport looked to continue expanding into new markets.
“The Greater Bay Area and Southeast Asia have the perfect opportunity to host more events. We have for a long time outlined that we want our tour to be more global,” the Englishman, who took office almost five years ago, said.
“We want more events in Asia and in Europe, but we don’t want to have a huge number of events on the calendar because it’s already difficult to schedule the ones we have.
“There’s an opportunity to look at some of the other events we have in the UK and think, could they be repositioned somewhere else in the world?
“If we add new events, we might have to think about which of the most successful ones we will retain, and potentially bring in new events to replace the ones that perhaps aren’t working as well.”
Separately, the organisers of the World Grand Prix confirmed to the SCMP that the ranking event would remain in the city for the next few years.
“This event will not be relocated to mainland China, guaranteed. It won’t be brought to China, 100 per cent,” Lakita Feng Huanhuan, chief executive of F-Sports, said. “We are now familiar with the situation of Hong Kong snooker fans after two years, and we understand their preferences as well as the facilities of the arena.
“We feel it’s much smoother than it was last year, and I am convinced it will be better next year. Secondly, the sports atmosphere in Hong Kong is just too good; none of the cities in China I’ve experienced before can match it.
“You have rugby sevens and football, and being able to host an event like the National Games in such an excellent way, I was so impressed.”
Sources also told the SCMP that the third edition of the World Grand Prix would be held from February 16 to 21 next year.


World Snooker Tour CEO defends scheduling of events after player complaints in Hong Kong

Chinese snooker players secure all-China semi-finals at World Grand Prix in Hong Kong

Xiao Guodong says ‘it’s complicated’ as he knocks out Ronnie O’Sullivan at World Grand Prix

Ronnie O’Sullivan ‘not a good player anymore’, but wins first match in Hong Kong

World Snooker

World Snooker Tour CEO Simon Brownell says scheduling ‘will continue to be difficult’ as the tour grows. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Kyren Wilson suffered a damaging loss to Xiao Guodong at Kai Tak Arena on Tuesday. Photo: Elson Li

China’s Xiao Guodong in between shots in a second-round World Grand Prix match against Ronnie O’Sullivan of England at Kai Tak Arena on Thursday. Photo: Xinhua

Ronnie O’Sullivan did play well towards the end of their match, Xiao Guodong said. Photo: Xinhua

Reigning champion Zhao Xintong came from 3-0 down to beat Mark Selby. Photo: Elson Li

Hong Kong squad warned that Asia Triathlon Cup races are ‘as serious as they come’

Bailee Brown (far left) and Oscar Coggins (second right), here with Robin Elg and Cade Wright after claiming National Games silver, will lead the Hong Kong charge in Malaysia on Saturday. Photo: Eugene Lee

Robin Elg could miss a squad camp in Yunnan as he manages a bone stress reaction. Photo: Eugene Lee

Oscar Coggins, here on his way to National Games individual bronze, is hunting ranking points. Photo: Eugene Lee

Sport

Hong Kong

Other Sport

Simon Brownell also said it was ‘quite possible’ that more tournaments could be moved from the UK to the Greater Bay Area and Southeast Asia


Simon Brownell also said it was ‘quite possible’ that more tournaments could be moved from the UK to the Greater Bay Area and Southeast Asia.


World Snooker Tour CEO defends scheduling of events after player complaints in Hong Kong

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Simon Brownell also said it was ‘quite possible’ that more tournaments could be moved from the UK to the Greater Bay Area and Southeast Asia

Simon Brownell also said it was ‘quite possible’ that more tournaments could be moved from the UK to the Greater Bay Area and Southeast Asia