gallantrabbit wrote:We ll know it's a bit showbizzy. After all, it's a short format and can't be taken too seriously, but all these players deserve their tv appearances and why not make some cash?
I think the issue is that they do take it too seriously.
Snooker Legends used to be about going for a night out, having a laugh and a beer. The player would banter with the audience and go for mad-impossible shots that they wouldn't do in an actual match. It was a laugh. I went to a few myself, and enjoyed them.
Now it's televised, and the prize money is bigger, that sense of fun seems to have stopped. I'm not begrudging the players their pay days, but watching it nowadays seems dry compared to the nights out they used to be like.
And the whole pretending the tournament is comparable to winning the actual World Championship is just absurd. People on here know I'd rarely criticise Michaela, but she must've felt stupid saying she was about to referee her 'third Crucible final'. The final last year, all the players and pundits were in tuxedos, and talked pre-match about how it could be Jimmy's time to 'win a world title at The Crucible'. The BBC website even ran an article to say "he'd finally done it". If I was him, I'd be well embarrassed by that. Nothing against Jimmy, but winning the Snooker Seniors didn't make up for those 6 losses in the final. There's no real point pretending that it does. I get that they want to market the tournament, but come on.
