SNOOKER:BARRY HEARN yesterday delivered a stark warning to any player caught gambling on this year's Betfred.com World Championship: "If you mess around with this, it's life."
World Snooker chairman Hearn insisted he would not tolerate the Crucible showpiece – which begins on April 16th in Sheffield – being marred by the kind of scandal which completely overshadowed last year’s Sheffield final.
The eve of the final saw the publication of a tabloid sting on three-time champion and world number one John Higgins, who was accused of agreeing to take a bribe to fix matches.
Higgins was ultimately cleared of that charge but was suspended for six months for giving the misleading impression he would be prepared to deliberately lose frames as well as failing to report the approach made to him.
The fallout from the Higgins scandal led Hearn to slap a blanket ban on players placing any kind of bet on a snooker match, with any offenders kicked out of the sport for life.
Speaking after yesterday’s draw for this year’s World Championship, Hearn was confident the message had been received and understood.
“You have to educate first and I think we’ve done the education this year,” he said. “The other side of the process is the punishment.
“If you mess around with this, it’s life. And all the things you built up, all the things that have been given to you are going to be lost once and for all.”
Hearn was on the brink of completing his takeover of World Snooker last year when the Higgins story broke.
“Inevitably, you think, ‘What have I let myself in for? This is not what I came back for’,” said Hearn, who had helped make the sport one of the most popular in the country during the 1980s. “But I always said going back into snooker was like meeting an old girlfriend. Well, during the last 12 months, we got married as well.
“Despite the bad publicity, despite the problems during the World Championship, we came out of it stronger. We actually realised, we’re not untouchable. That gave us the opportunity to cure it as well, and I think we made major strides.”
Hearn set up an “integrity unit” to police the game but also, crucially, increased the number of tournaments in a bid to avoid players being tempted to stray in the first place.
“We always needed to create more reason to play your best at all times,” he said. “There’s too much to lose now, whereas, before, there wasn’t enough to lose . . . I think it’s been a definitive year in the evolution of snooker and I think we’re now back burning on full speed.”
Yesterday’s draw saw Higgins and Ronnie O’Sullivan handed tough-looking first-round matches against Stephen Lee and Dominic Dale, respectively.
Defending champion Neil Robertson faces rising star Judd Trump while seven-time winner Stephen Hendry plays Joe Perry.
Resurgent two-time champion Mark Williams, who is closing in on Higgins at the top of the rankings, faces fellow Welshman Ryan Day, and Ding Junhui, tipped by many to land his maiden world title, meets Jamie Burnett.
Jamie Cope v Andrew Pagett
Ding Junhui v Jamie Burnett
John Higgins v Stephen Lee
Neil Robertson v Judd Trump
Mark Allen v Matthew Stevens
Ricky Walden v Rory McLeod
Mark Williams v Ryan Day
Stephen Maguire v Barry Hawkins
Ronnie O’Sullivan v Dominic Dale
Shaun Murphy v Marcus Campbell
Graeme Dott v Mark King
Stephen Hendry v Joe Perry
Ali Carter v Dave Harold
Peter Ebdon v Stuart Bingham
Mark Selby v Jimmy Robertson
Marco Fu v Martin Gould
