Olé Olé Olé Olé, Snooker's World Cup set for July

celticfc

Taken from SSB:

HEARN'S GLOBAL VISION GATHERS PACE

The much trailed World Cup has been confirmed for Thailand from July 11-17.

It will feature 20 two-man teams. The players for each team will be selected according to their ranking position.

For example, if the current ranking list were used this would mean John Higgins and Stephen Maguire for Scotland, Mark Selby and Shaun Murphy for England and Mark Williams and Matthew Stevens for Wales. Thailand, as host nation, will have two teams.

The event will be sponsored by PTT, the state-owned energy company, and EGAT, the electricity generating Authority of Thailand. It takes place at the World Trade Centre in Bangkok.

Barry Hearn travelled to Thailand last week to finalise details, the latest in a long line of innovations his stewardship of World Snooker has brought about in the last year.

And it gets better. World Snooker says it is in advanced discussions for a new ranking tournament outside the UK in late July. I understand this could turn out to be in Australia.

That would be a huge step forward. An Australian Open was announced way back in 1989, the only snag being that it ended up being played in Hong Kong.

Hearn clearly believes that snooker’s future rests on its global potential, which has never been properly realised.

So many countries – Canada, Dubai, Belgium, Holland and Thailand to name a few – have been visited and then dumped by previous administrations.

We saw huge crowds in Berlin for the German Masters and the last two days of the PTC Grand Finals in Dublin proved snooker is still popular in Ireland.

At this rate there will be at least ten ranking tournaments next season, plus various invitation events, including the new Brazilian Masters, and the World Cup, a picture so rosy as to have been unimaginable just two years ago.

Not content with all this, Hearn has turned his attention to Killing Cancer, a charity the governing body will support by helping to raise £250,000 over the next three years.

Surely all Barry will soon have left to tackle will be world peace...

I for one am looking forward to this, it must be 9 or 10 years since the likes of the Nations Cup or even longer since the last World Cup. I would presume the Irish side (RoI anyway) would consist of Ken & Fergal or Michael Judge and the North with Mark Allen & probable Joe Swail seeing as the will be picked by rankings. It's also great to see that a big sponsor is already secured.

The other ranking event mooted aswell probably in Australia is also a big boost. A big event down under was inevitable after Neil becoming WSC champ. It's not surprising they would wait for another few weeks to announce this, World Snooker have always loved to announce things like this while all the media are focused on the Crucible for maximum exposure.

It all makes for an unuasually busy summer of snooker.

zack01

Yes indeed, I posted a thread about the World Cup being held in Bangkok last Dec, the Irish team will be Ken and Fergal, the North team is Mark Allen and Gerard Greene, it will bring back some great memories as the last time the World Cup was held it was in Bangkok in '96 where the Irish were narrowly beaten in the final by Scotland, mind you the highlight was Kens deciding frame win against Ronnie when we beat England in the semis.

I'm off to China Thursday for the China open so any more news I'll post it here.

StephenHendry

great to have it back , i did enjoy the nations cup held from 98 to 01 as well.

zack01

Here's the draw for he forthcoming Snooker World Cup in July, can the Irish team of Ken Doherty and Fergal O'Brien go one better than the last world cup and win it this time around?


*
Here are the groups:
*
Group A
Wales
Egypt
Pakistan
Germany
Ireland
*
Group B
China
Thailand 1
UAE
Malta
Australia
*
Group C
England
Brazil
India
Belgium
Northern Ireland
*
Group D
Scotland
Thailand 2
Afghanistan
Poland
Hong Kong
*
The 20 teams will be drawn into four groups of five, for the event which runs from July 11-17 in Bangkok, Thailand. The top two in each group go through to the quarter-finals. Each match will include singles and doubles frames. The teams are as follows:
*
Top eight seeds:
1. Wales: Mark Williams and Matthew Stevens
2. Scotland: John Higgins and Stephen Maguire
3. England: Mark Selby and Ali Carter
4. China: Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo
5. Australia: Neil Robertson and Steve Mifsud
6. Northern Ireland: Mark Allen and Gerard Greene
7. Hong Kong: Marco Fu and Fung Kwok Wai
8. Republic of Ireland: Ken Doherty and Fergal O'Brien

*
Host teams

Thailand A: James Wattana and Dechawat Poomjaeng
Thailand B: Passakorn Sunwannawat and Thepchaiya Un-nooh

*
Wild cards
Germany: Patrick Einsle and Lasse Münstermann
Brazil: Itaro Santos and one other TBC

*
Qualifiers
Belgium: Bjorn Haneveer and Luca Brecel
Pakistan: Sahid Aftab and Muhammad Sajjad
India: Aditya Metha and Pankaj Advani
Afghanistan: Mohammad Rais Senzahi and Saleh Mohammad Mohammadi
UAE: Mohmmed Mustafa Shehab and Mohammed Al Joaker
Poland: Kacper Filipiak and Krzysztof Wrobel
Malta: Tony Drago and Alex Borg
Egypt: Wael Talat and Yasser El-Sherbini

Arthur Daley

Amazing no Canadians are really coming through.

bren2001

Easy to see us qualify from the group. Hard to see us getting any further. Ken Doherty is long past it and Fergal O'Brien is ok. Still I love forward to it and will get behind them both. Ive never seen a snooker world cup, no soccer on over the summer and with infrequent GAA matches, this will be the sporting highlight (which I need every year)

zack01

So the world cup is under way, the latest news is that Ireland have lost their first match 3-2 to Palistan, two centuries in the two frames the boys won wasn't enough to prevent a defeat. Was it a shock? In my opinion, no.
This format with single frame matches and doubles with each player taking alternate shots will catch some teams out.
The majority of the teams bar the favourites like England , Scotland, Wales etc are made up of young players who although only pros a few years, they do have experience playing in pro am events like for example the PTC's
I would and do expect many more shocks as the event progresses, look out especially for the likes of Belgium and Poland, they might just pull off a shock or two.

Myrddin

Is this televised at all??

zack01

Eurosport is providing live coverage each morning

hotspur147

really poor standard from what i saw this morning,esp in the doubles.....irelands doubles frame took over an hour.
still like the format tho.

blueyedson

Watched irl v pakistan this morning....was exicting to watch because of all the mistakes !! ken started it off with a century, couldnt have started better....

fergal up next ,would have made him a 1/4 fav for the frame...in my opinion he played not to lose the frame instead of playing to win it...refused a couple of half chances...in the end it proved a mistake as he never got into or kept good position..in the end he made some very elemental mistakes even on standard safety shots..with his experience was very surprised...but it made great viewing as you could feel the pressure..

felt sorry for ken in the mixed doubles...was funny in a way to watch as he and fergal play at such a different pace...nothing wrong with the way fergal plays, he gives it everything, but was hard for either player to get a rhytem..especially ken..

should make for some entertaining matches, the format can give the underdogs a better chance....

zack01

The Rep of Ireland bounced back from their first match defeat to beat Egypt 4-1 today

blueyedson

Was happy to see the lads beat germany today 3-2.

Ken lost the 1st frame...didnt get goin and you could tell he started feelin the pressure...its been a good tourn to watch because the lads are feelin that extra bit of pressure that they are not usually used to...as the communtaters were saying, its like what snooker was like in the 80's...loads of safety play and frames taking ages....its been adding to the tension ,the longer the frames going on the harder the boys are trying.

it was gas to see the doubles frame...ken and fergal made a 40+ break...in between shots on the break they were discussing how to play the next shot...mostly ken was telling fergal where to position the white for next shot...it was funny becasue all the knowledge fergal has, it was like down the club playing for a fiver and your partner tellin you what to do...anyways it worked for them they won the frame..

they just need 1 frame against wales tomorrow to get to the quaters...hopefully they do it...its unlikely they go on to win it, but they will be relieved to get to quaters because they both played some rubbish snooker and should probably relax and play alittle bit better.

scholarswalk

Good to see Ken and Fergal bounce back after the first game defeat. It's an exciting and different kind of tournament. A different type of pressure than they're used to. I would not be surprised now if the lads beat Wales to top the group! I presume that will get a handier opponent in the quarters?
When is coverage on Eurosport these nights? Each night the EPG guide says it will be on at certain time, but when I go to see it then, its not being shown?!

oneillMan999

If im not mistaken, Ireland need to win at least 2 frames against Wales to qualify for the quarters and theyre 1-0 down at the minute! :eek:

oneillMan999

2-0 down now, not lookin good!

oneillMan999

2-1 to Wales now, we need one from the last 2 frames...

scholarswalk

looks like Ken got the last Frame to get us through the group. 3-2 to Wales. Well done lads. Do we play Group B winners (Aus?) in quarters, or is it out of a hat?

zack01

The world cup ended for Ireland today, a 4-1 loss to China ends their interest at the quarter final stage.
To be fair the two boys never really got going and they did well to even qualify for the knockout stage after losing to Pakistan in their opening match.
It's onto Austrailia now for Ken for the Goldfields Open where he plays Stephen Maguire, O'Brien however did not qualify for Bendigo and returns to Dublin.

califano

Ireland ripped off:rolleyes:

bren2001

rounders123 wrote: »

Ireland ripped off:rolleyes:

Thats just brilliant. Truely, only Ken Doherty could kick up a fuss over that.

allOtherPlaces

Ken should be more concerned that he made Fergal O'Brien look like Ireland's captain.

"I'm a petty man in many ways Bart. A small, petty man"

matthew8

bren2001 wrote: »

Thats just brilliant. Truely, only Ken Doherty could kick up a fuss over that.

What do you mean? It's a disgrace! Even worse than the McLeod incident. Now we will have people all over the country waltzing in to snooker clubs with no bowtie and refusing to shake hands.