The Red Invasion

I'm sure Chinese players will improve gradually over the next ten years but I don't see them dominating the game or even being the No.1 Snooker country.

While most of the talented young players coming through are from China the tour is still based in Britain which puts the young players at a huge disadvantage as they have to move thousands of miles from home while still being children and competing against experienced players often twice their age.

It's like in football how people for years have predicted an African team would win the World Cup but they still haven't come close. African players are from a young age scattered around Europe which makes it much more difficult to develop a national team than in the big Western European countries whose players are either at home or in a neighbouring league.

Don't think it will be country dominating. Plenty of youngsters from elsewhere coming through, Ben Mertens from Belgium for one. Others from Ukraine, Poland, Thailand, even middle east.

9 of the 11 youngest players on tour are from China. Only one player at a time can be world number 1 and world champion though.

As has been said the tour is still British centric. Even all the qualifiers even for the Asian tournaments are held in the UK.

mick745 wrote:Don't think it will be country dominating. Plenty of youngsters from elsewhere coming through, Ben Mertens from Belgium for one. Others from Ukraine, Poland, Thailand, even middle east.

9 of the 11 youngest players on tour are from China. Only one player at a time can be world number 1 and world champion though.

As has been said the tour is still British centric. Even all the qualifiers even for the Asian tournaments are held in the UK.

Great post.

Didnt know the BBC predicted that over 10 years ago but its a bit hasty to say the least. Chinese domination was never going to happen that quick imo.

Here's my prediction, in another say 15 years (2033 for arguments sake) 80% + of the tour will be Chinese.

I'll check back here then if im lucky to alive. And if the site is still operating. The Invasion is well and truly coming.

Everyone's been predicting it for the last 10 years. But it looks like it's finally happening as the young Chinese started performing and 11 of the top 16 is over 35 so they will have to be replaced soon.
Still I think it will take another 10 years for half the top 16 and at least 20 years until half the tour will be Chinese. Although most of the youngest players on tour are Chinese you still get more new players from other countries, they just don't get there as young.

It's a numbers game with the Chinese. With a population of nearly two billion, even if you have only 2 percent of the people there playing snooker regularly, that's still nearly the same amount as the entire population of England. You have more people playing snooker in China than there are actual people in the whole of England. Think about that for a minute.

It goes without saying the majority of the tour should be chinese in a decade or so, provided the game is as popular over there as the reports keep telling us it is. It's inevitable, you can't compete with those sorts of numbers.

If it was just a numbers game China would dominate every single sport on the planet.

With 1 billion people India should also have many many top players and olympic gold medals.

Seriously maybe the question should be which of those players will have the best career. They won't all make it though.

I think Xintong, Sijun and Honghao will have great careers.

Snookerfan...are you still backing Lu Ning for this?

mick745 wrote:If it was just a numbers game China would dominate every single sport on the planet.

With 1 billion people India should also have many many top players and olympic gold medals.

Seriously maybe the question should be which of those players will have the best career. They won't all make it though.

I think Xintong, Sijun and Honghao will have great careers.

It isn't just a numbers game, nobody's saying that. Obviously there's a physical barrier there as well which will prohibit certain nationalities from excelling at certain sports or disciplines no matter big the numbers advantage. For example, you're aren't going to see East Asians dominating sprinting events like the blacks do. Snooker has no such physical barriers and it also has the social acceptance within China, so I could certainly see the majority of the tour coming from there.

As to how many they'll have at the top end remains to be seen. I think the top 5 or 10 in the world will still have a fairly even mix.

I thought 'The Red Invasion' was a euphemism like 'having the painters in'.

Badsnookerplayer wrote:I thought 'The Red Invasion' was a euphemism like 'having the painters in'.

Surfing on the crimson tide.

SnookerFan wrote:

Badsnookerplayer wrote:I thought 'The Red Invasion' was a euphemism like 'having the painters in'.

Surfing on the crimson tide.