The snooker world may be braced for the draw for the first round of the Dafabet World Championships, to be staged at the Rileys Sports Bar on London’s Haymarket on Thursday 17th April, but there is a baffling indifference among the broadcast media towards the always gripping occasion.
Radio station talkSPORT had been due to broadcast the draw live on the morning Colin Murray show, but the presenter and his production team seemed to go cool on the idea and they withdrew relatively late in the day.
But that talkSPORT were even in the frame is bewildering, given the BBC’s contract to show the 17-day tournament from the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. With at least two sports-oriented radio stations, you would have thought that the organisation would have wanted to publicise their own event, especially on that is watched by so many millions on television.
Instead the process will be shown on World Snooker’s Youtube channel.
This year’s draw was always going to be intriguing, with former world champions Mark Williams, Ken Doherty, Peter Ebdon and Graeme Dott having to win just one match to be in the bag. With absolutely no real inside knowledge on this one, we have a feeling in the water that Dott may just be handed Ronnie O’Sullivan in the opening round if he makes it through.