The Excellent Snooker Players Facing Long Bans

[PeterRS]

I happen to be a fan of snooker and am glued to the tv when the main tournaments are being played. One feature of recent years has been the arrival of many young Chinese players. Two in particular have won major events. First was 22 year-old Yang Bing-tao who won the 2021 Masters title. Even more talented is 25 year-old Zhao Xin-tong from X'ian who won the 2021 UK and German Masters titles. His qualities as a player have been praised extremely highly by such greats as Ronnie O'Sullivan and Stephen Hendry. Most of these Chinese players moved to Sheffield in England when they were much younger where there are excellent facillities for their development.

Now a huge cloud hangs over not just these two players but 8 others ranging in age from 19 to 35. All have been banned by the snooker authorities pending the outcome of investigations for match fixing. Fixing the outcome of matches is not confined to Chinese players. In 2013 the British player Stephen Lee was banned for 10 years.

The integrity unit of the World Professional Billiard and Snooker Association monitors the betting industry very closely. It receives alerts when unusual betting activity is discovered. The detail of the bans presently imposed have not been made public. Given the massive increase in interest of the sport in China in particular, I can only assume that it came as a result of bets made in Asia. Given that most of these young Chinese are a result of the country's one-child policy, I can see the possibility  of triad activity here. These gangsters would be unlikely to go after the players since they are based in England. But I can see them going after their families if the sons did not go along with their illegal activities.  But that's a pure guess. We have to wait a few more weeks before the details are made public.

Should illegal match fixing be proved, it will be good for the sport. It will also be sad to see so much talent banned for many years when they should be at their peak. Zhao Xin-tong, the world No. 9, is especially cute (!) and I will miss his participation on the international snooker tour!

https://www.bbc.com/sport/snooker/64174244

[Lucky]

Zhao Xin-tong is the guy on the left, in case you are as curious as I!

[vinapu]

handsome but bit overdressed

[alvnv]

1 hour ago, vinapu said:

handsome but bit overdressed

I doubt that has ever been a deterrent for you 

[vinapu]

2 hours ago, alvnv said:

I doubt that has ever been a deterrent for you 

bingo!

unbuttoning their shirts and unzipping their jeans is one of pleasures of my otherwise boring life and I always make sure I spend time doing good job uncovering what was  hidden.

Sometimes there's  some obstacle in jeans part so obviously they kind of like my job.

Rarely but it does happen they look extremely sexy somewhat dressed so I keep them like that until somebody shuts the lights off. Getting bit hot in here, let me open window. 

[10tazione]

I bet in the snooker forum people are complaining that 10 years ago everything was better and that the players should play in underwear to make the sport more interesting to people who otherwise would watch .. wrestling?

[PeterRS]

Love to see some of those young snooker players in tight short pants - preferably white so you can see the bulge. But there would have to be an age limit. Who would want to see Ronnie O'Sullivan or John Higgins other than covered head to toe in black?

[alvnv]

1 hour ago, PeterRS said:

Love to see some of those young snooker players in tight short pants - preferably white so you can see the bulge. But there would have to be an age limit. Who would want to see Ronnie O'Sullivan or John Higgins other than covered head to toe in black?

 

[PeterRS]

With the UK Masters having finished last night with Judd Trump taking the title won last year by Zhao Xin-tong. it seems the Snooker Authorities' enquiries about match fixing are close to conclusion. Hopefully some of those under suspicion will be exonerated and permitted back on the tour. The fact that all ten players suspended are Chinese is a big problem for the authorities. China is by far the largest new market for snooker and more and more tournaments are being played there. A few months ago the Hong Kong tournament was played before an audience of 8,000 in the Hong Kong Coliseum, the first time any tournament had been played before spectators numbering more than around 3,000. China is seen to be the future of the game, especially with more and more young players winning places on the world tour.

The fact that all ten under investigation are Chinese not only threatens the immediate future of the sport surely casts some doubt on the accusations. There have been British players suspended in previous years, but only two. I have already mentioned the possibility of triad influence. But I find it difficult to understand why top-ten players like Zhou and the younger Yan Bing-tao who have both won several major tournaments would throw away what were about to become stellar careers. Zhou in particular has had no dream other than playing professiojnal snooker since he was a small kid. His father even bought him a full-size snooker table when it became obvious that this was the career he wanted. The 12-year ban handed out to Stephen Lee for match fixing in 2008 and 2009 must surely have been a major deterrent to future players. Even one of the 'greats' John Higgins had to serve a much shorter ban for similar reasons. The Thai No. 1 Thepchaya Un-Nooh was investigated in 2012 but no charges wre brought.

One former 'great' Willei Thorne has stated that corruption through match-fixing is endemic in the game. Apparently virtually all players have been approached. Thailand's frist player to reach the top ranks 30 years ago James Wattana even received death threats if he did not fix a match. It does seem that even though the authorities have made major efforts to stamp out match fixing, there is little they can do when bets can be taken on any number of possibilities during a match. Unless their evidence against some of the Chinese players is watertight, I still hope to see many of them exonerated.

[PeterRS]

Well, I assumed in my earlier post that the snooker match fixing investigations involving 10 Chinese players would have been concluded long before now. Wrong! The formal deliberations only started this week, all the players having been denied for months any chance of playing professionally should they happen to be found innocent and/or not subject to bans.

A year ago we were all marvelling at 25-year old Zhau Xin-tong's debut at the World Championships and how he would one day become world champion. Now he may be banned for a period of years. But in the meantime an even more talented and younger Chinese 20-year old has both stunned and thrilled exhilarated audiences at this year's World Championships. Making his debut at these Championships and with little success so far in his career (apart from beating a few established professionals), Si Jia-hui from a city just south of Hangzhou has had audiences, commentators and the sports' greats running out of superlatives. Many top commentators had never heard of him, let alone seen him play. He entered the Championships as a wild card who had played and beaten three other players in long matches in order to enter the Championships. As he himself said in an interview, he didn't expect to do well and only wanted to savour the atmosphere in the regular Championship venue, Sheffield's Crucible Theatre.

Ranked only #80 in the world, so far he has beaten three highly established professionals (#4, #14 and #21) to reach his first semi-final ever. Over the last two weeks his sensational potting ability, his cool demeanour and maturity well beyond his years has been spectacular to watch. In his 33 frame semi-final which ends tonight Bangkok time, he is presently leading world #10 Luca Brecel by 14-10. At one time he was 14-6 ahead. If he keeps his cool and plays his natural game, he should win the 3 frames to make him the first Chinese to reach the 35- frame Final (played on Sunday and Monday).

Like many Chinese professional snooker players, he moved to Sheffield aged 16 to practice and be looked after at Victoria's Snooker Academy. Victoria Shi was a journalist until she decided to open the Academy mostly for young Chinese players. With the young players unable to return to China during nearly three years of covid, she has acted as a mother figure as well as their manager. She has spoken highly of Zhau who she says is a "nice kid". Unlike the others, he has stayed in England since the ban, learning more English and practising daily. Perhaps he may end up being lucky. In the meantime it is Si who has the snooker world raving. Whether he wins the World Championship or not, he is now guaranteed huge endorsement deals in China. But no doubt it is that trophy he values most.

https://metro.co.uk/2023/04/14/victoria-shi-on-match-fixing-suspensions-of-young-and-stupid-academy-stars-18610772/