By Elliott West
Introduction
Snooker has always thought to have a UK base with its governance and players firmly based in this country. However since it spread its wings with players venturing to other countries in the 1970s and 1980s, the green shoots of interest were planted in countries further afield. One such country that has wholeheartedly embraced the sport is China. Thanks to the Thai player, James Wattana and his success in snooker, the Chinese population started to warm to this sport, fascinated by the ‘parlour style type of play, a game where balls are continuously potted and clap for the most routine of shots. A baffling sport but one that quickly gets under your skin and keeps you hooked and wanting more.
The Seismic Ignition
James Wattana can definitely be described as a catalyst, someone who sparked interest for snooker in the Asian market and especially in China. He inspired players such as Ding Junhui and Marco Fu to pick up a cue and start playing. This snooker explosion didn’t end there because Ding’s rise to success, quickly caused the Chinese government to heavily invest in the sport, injecting cash to help build and protect the game in a long-term strategy.
One avenue that China has seized upon is by incorporating snooker into the school curriculum. They even went further by establishing the World Snooker College in Beijing, a boarding school where traditional methods of teaching through classrooms, textbooks, examinations and school uniforms, have been put on the back burner and replaced by snooker tables and casual wear. A strategy that they hope will harness future Chinese champions.
Investment has allowed young, Chinese players the opportunity to compete on a regional, national and ultimately a professional stage, thanks to a strong bond being formed between the WPBSA and the CBSA. Out of this was born the creation of a large number of Chinese tournaments in the snooker calendar with very successful events such as the China Championship and the Shanghai Masters with a significant amount of the total prize fund for the snooker tour being sourced from China.
A Long-Term Project
You would have thought with the massive population that exists in China, that there would have been further Chinese superstars to follow in Ding’s footsteps but in reality, the progress has been painfully slow with mainly players making the UK their temporary home to try to improve in the brilliant snooker academies that exist in this country, such as the Ding Junhui Snooker Academy and Victoria’s Snooker Academy in Sheffield and the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds. Ding helped build the legacy but he hasn’t guaranteed the certain future of Chinese success. The difficulty will be that any further stars such as Yan Bintao and others, will be measured on Ding’s success. Shoes that will be very difficult to fill long after his retirement and even harder to repeat his success in silverware. The much spoken about, Chinese domination still hasn’t happened and the field is still dominated by UK players. It still remains a project with a title of ‘Work in Progress’ and remains to be seen if it can be achieved?
The Future
A dark veil has hung over Chinese snooker for the last eighteen months due to the Corona Virus pandemic. The UK snooker authority, the WPBSA have had to find other venues to play tournaments, mainly in Milton Keynes and temporarily turn its back on its Chinese counterpart. Many Chinese players haven’t been able to travel to UK tournaments due to travel restrictions and the Chinese tournaments that once dominated the snooker calendar, have had to be erased.
However, the numerous forms of the vaccine, have brought down infection rates and deaths significantly with very few people testing positive for the number of audiences attending tournaments that have taken part recently. This brings hope for the reopening of the Chinese market and the staging of future events on the Chinese platform. The timescale is still unsure as there have been many bumps in this pandemic road that have tried and largely failed to send snooker off course. China is definitely a country that has provided a whole swathe of snooker gold and will do so again but you may have to wait slightly longer for the cogs of this massive Chinese machine to start turning.
