By Elliott West
“I’m the representative for Black people in snooker and I haven’t seen anything being done in my direction”.
Rory McLeod
Introduction
Today snooker remains a highly popular sport with large global viewing figures for the Triple Crown tournaments especially the World Championship. However, if you dig deeper down into this popularity, there seems to be a massive crack in diversity in snooker. I say this in respect of black players being represented. If you conducted a straw poll of how many black players someone could name in snooker? I am sure that there would a lot of puzzled faces with few being able to name even one. As a dedicated follower of the game, the true answer is there has only been one professional, Rory McLeod and Lee Stephens who has yet to turn professional.
This is clearly a worrying statistic and one that needs to be examined in more detail. While snooker has a wealth of Chinese and Thai professional players with the odd British Asian player in the past, this clear absence of black players is wrong and there needs to be a clear strategy by snooker’s governing body, the WPBSA of how encourage, support and nurture those who wish to play this fascinating game. This is a clearly an elephant in the room that few want to talk about the situation is so dire that even Rory McLeod felt the need to speak out recently to address the issue when he spoke to Eurosport about diversity, saying:
“Maybe snooker is still in the dark ages”.
Rory McLeod
The Disconnect
History has shown that a wealth of talent has and still exists in the black community. Black History month proves that every year yet black people still feel that they are unfairly treated as the recent Black Life Matters protests echoed. Black people need role models in life and to date snooker has failed to provide them with in any numbers. With this void currently in place, what chance have we got of attracting black players to pick up a cue and start playing in the grassroots level? Black people still feel ignored and cry out for a purpose in life. Athletics and boxing have had a magnetic draw to some of these people who want discipline and achievement in their lives but the snooker tables that used to be widely seen in community centres and snooker clubs in the local community, are missing as both have closed down in droves over the years.
Yes, it is true that anyone in sport need to deserve their place. They are there due to merit and talent with race not being part of the equation. However, if we are ever to make progress in diversity in snooker. I applauded World Snooker when they created a snooker educational programme where they would go into schools and show the game to school children. This is a programme that has larger investment in Hong Kong and China and surely would entice some children from the black community to walk into a snooker club and play in the various junior programmes that exist. The push is currently missing, promote those that currently play and surely that will some members of this vital and inspirational community to play. Open your arms snooker and embrace the BAME community.
The Fight
This fight is all about diversity and the need to bring it widely to snooker. This clear injustice could easily be improved. It’s not if snooker isn’t welcoming, we a devoted and loving family. In fact, racism isn’t something that is associated with snooker, and I haven’t heard of a case. The sad thing is that Rory McLeod is no longer on the professional tour anymore, losing his place this year, having first joined the tour in 1991. Due to the tough qualifying process, he hasn’t been seen in many televised matches and probably isn’t someone that many people have heard of.
Lee Stephens is a good example of a black player who has done well outside the professional tour. A runner-up of the recent WSF Championship earlier this year, at the age of 40, he only plays part-time. An achievement that clearly wasn’t promoted by the snooker authorities because I have to embarrassingly admit that I hadn’t heard of him before researching this piece. Perhaps he just isn’t quite good enough to be part of the 128. Snooker is tough and cutthroat, it isn’t easy to get a tour card and does take blood, sweat and tears to get one.
Bring that concentration you have in promoting women players to the same levels as the BAME community. Diversity is key to keeping snooker representative. I want to all skin colours and nationalities represented in this game but understand this definitely isn’t something that will happen overnight. It’s a medium to long-term project but clearly needs more thought and planning. It’s a complex problem that needs to be tackled from multiple angles but if the governing body continues to sit on their hands and the grassroots continues to have more grass in it that buzzing projects, nothing will change.
