kenneth79 wrote:Sonny wrote:The Canadian nomination was quality until The Lion turned the card down.
He was never going to accept. What would you choose? Be a top dog in pool and earn fairly big money in your own back yard or move to England and start at the bottom in snooker with little/no prize money?
Alex was the WC for 9-ball. You know what he got for winning that? Something like 50k (about 35,000 pounds).
The money in pool is chicken feed compared to snooker and as far as his "own backyard", Alex travels quite extensively, no major 9-ball events occur in Canada.
While Alex would have to start at the bottom I'm certain he'd go deep enough in events (even in his first year) to make better money than he could with 9-ball.
The 9-ball tour is not well run....more accurately put it's really quite shady. It took Alex almost a year to get paid out for his WC win
On that note, it's funny to see people harping about how hard it is to make a living for the lower ranked players in snooker. People should stop comparing snooker to golf and tennis, they should compare it to other cue sports. That would help them appreciate the opportunities given to the snooker players and help them understand how pathetic it is to see young snooker players whining about travel and expenses.
I haven't gone into the issue with Alex in depth but his basic statement is that he doesn't have time. I see him almost daily right now as he's playing the Canadian championships (FYI he's already won the 8-ball championship, is deep in the 9-ball and has won his first two round-robin snooker matches 4-0/4-1) and usually suggest he move to snooker full time at least once.
IMO Alex is somewhat worried how his skills will hold up against players who've spent their life devoted solely to snooker. He feels that some of his bad habits picked up from 9-ball will hurt him against the snooker elite and that's a very reasonable concern. BUT, I truly believe Alex could make the adjustment and would do well, he just needs to play in an event or two to see it.