The new China Championship - a trick missed?
The news that emerged that a new China Championship with what is a record breaking overseas first prize of £200,000 will probably not have gone unnoticed by snooker fans.
The plans for the uninitiated are a 16 man invitational field made up of the top 10 in the World ranking list with four more spots reserved for the top 4 in the one year rankings. Two players will be nominated by the CBSA. From 2017 however the tournament will become a new ranking event with 128 players competing.
Although its good to see a new event (reserving judgement on the format with a five day window - hoping it doesn't become a best of 7 to best of 9 contest - with the money involved I'm not sure it will) - I'm still left wondering as to whether the tournament may have missed a trick in trying to make it something different.
The one 'style' of event that the Asian game has always had missing from the tour is a 'Masters' style invitational event. It has it's regular rankers plus it's 'UK' in the International Championship.
- Of course these 'Pilot' events have had some measure of success - the Northern Ireland Trophy became an established ranking event - but some others were staged as one offs e.g. th Brazilian Masters.
With Chinese snooker having no need for a 'pilot' event before a new ranker - wouldn't it be better for the event to remain an invitational event - and provide something to the game that it doesn't already have over there?
The plans for the uninitiated are a 16 man invitational field made up of the top 10 in the World ranking list with four more spots reserved for the top 4 in the one year rankings. Two players will be nominated by the CBSA. From 2017 however the tournament will become a new ranking event with 128 players competing.
Although its good to see a new event (reserving judgement on the format with a five day window - hoping it doesn't become a best of 7 to best of 9 contest - with the money involved I'm not sure it will) - I'm still left wondering as to whether the tournament may have missed a trick in trying to make it something different.
The one 'style' of event that the Asian game has always had missing from the tour is a 'Masters' style invitational event. It has it's regular rankers plus it's 'UK' in the International Championship.
- Of course these 'Pilot' events have had some measure of success - the Northern Ireland Trophy became an established ranking event - but some others were staged as one offs e.g. th Brazilian Masters.
With Chinese snooker having no need for a 'pilot' event before a new ranker - wouldn't it be better for the event to remain an invitational event - and provide something to the game that it doesn't already have over there?
- PLtheRef
- Posts: 5066
- Joined: 20 December 2009
- Location: Sheffield
- Highest Break: 28
- Walk-On: Vangelis 1492 Conquest of Paradise