Luke Littler's confidence is not 'arrogance' and the way he handled the Ricardo Pietreczko situation enhanced his reputation

Littler hit the sporting headlines once again when hitting a nine-dart finish en route to winning the Belgian Darts Open on his European Tour debut – but his semi-final clash with Pietreczko also courted controversy.

After exchanging frosty words with Littler on stage, the German, took to Instagram to say: "Well, I really appreciated him being able to play a game like that at such an age, but I hope his arrogance punishes him."

In this week’s column, the Asset blasts anyone who shares the same view as ‘Pikachu’…

Are Luke Littler’s critics just jealous and bitter about his success?

Yes, quite frankly. You've got to know somebody properly to understand whether they are arrogant and usually these types of superstar players, in any sport, are just projecting a level of confidence that the critics may never have.

Peter Wright is another player who has been unfairly dubbed as arrogant by some ‘fans’ due to his on stage confidence but he’s actually one of the least arrogant people I’ve ever met.

He’s still the same guy that I met in 2008 and hasn't changed one little bit. He's still very softly spoken, he is impossibly generous and kind, but for some reason, when adrenaline pumps through your veins, you do turn into somebody else. That's just chemistry. That's human biology.

When you get this surge of this incredible stuff that makes you feel stronger and taller and more capable, certain things may happen that may be perceived as arrogant. It doesn't make someone an arrogant person. It's just a moment where their confidence rises to a level where others would perceive it as that way.

When we see Luke Littler off the oche in interviews – or even on the Jonathan Ross show for example where he's reaching new audiences, he always projects being grounded and polite. He’s not become one of these celebrities with an entourage and making outrageous demands.

If you walk into any practice room, whether it's in Bahrain, Ally Pally or Belgium, you wouldn’t even know he was there unless you went looking for him.

That tells you an awful lot about Luke. He's a marvellous young kid who at the minute has absolutely the right attitude. He plays the sport like it's a video game. He enjoys it. He just happens to be better than most.

We are all incredibly grateful for what he's done for the sport over the last couple of months.

The one thing I can't understand is a lot of the things that some may say are ‘arrogant’ such as the 147 checkout attempt when he wanted to go T19, tops, bull.

I talked about it in commentary and said it's not as if that shot has never been attempted before. Someone else who was perceived as arrogant, Peter Manley, tried a shot similar on a nine-darter. He had 141 left in the World Matchplay and went for treble 17, double top then missed the bull.

I had a disagreement with someone on social media shortly after Littler’s success at the weekend in which they said his checkout attempt was completely the wrong way to go. But what's the biggest target that will give you a shot at a double? It's double top.

He explained on Sky Sports – I like tops, I like the bull. We don’t need to know any more than that. We all play the game a different way. There are textbook ways, yes, but do most people have a problem with him going that route? Of course not. It's exciting. It's refreshing, and it's got merit.

If Ricardo has a problem with that, that's entirely his opinion, but it doesn't make him right on this occasion.

So what about Ricardo?

This isn’t the first time Ricardo has been prickly with people on stage, but I get on with him well and I’m at a loss to explain why he’s been like that.

You speak to Ricardo off the stage, he’s friendly and he approaches the commentary box before every game, knocks on the window and gives us a bit of a smile.

When the adrenaline is pumping so heavily, people react differently to it. When you have certain doses of it your body sends you into this numb state when you actually haven't got a clue what you're doing or how to handle it.

Obviously one of the things that impresses me about Littler the most is that he handles those adrenaline spikes in those big moments better than most people have ever seen in sport.

He's just got this placid mentality of let's just do it whether it's in front of 3,000 people, 6,000 people, for £50 or £300,000.

Not everybody's like that. That's why a lot of people don't succeed in these kind of environments because they can't handle the swings. They can't handle the adrenaline spikes, the ups, the downs. That's what darts is all about. It's very much an up and down sport so it’s all about how you handle all the different emotions.

Ricardo has not handled it well and as a result of what happened at the weekend, I'm sure nobody in the crowds or on social media will let him forget it.

He hasn’t handled previous times when the crowd has been against him – such as when he played Beau Greaves at the Grand Slam of Darts – so becoming a rival of the world's most popular player could be a very bad idea. You’ve got to pick your battles right?

I've had some battles myself. It just so happened that the person that was right in front of me in my biggest pomp was the person who's been the best at this, Phil Taylor.

If Ricardo had ruffled the feathers of Littler in the semis and went on to fall short against Rob Cross, then I’d have thought, “maybe it worked, maybe that’s the weakness.”

But look what happened after that incident?! He gave it the big reaction to the crowd and this is moments before going on to hit a nine-darter in the final and holding his nerve in a deciding leg.

He has unreal maturity in these moments and is the ultimate professional. He doesn't go for Ricardo. He just soaks up what he says, and he just says: ‘What's his problem?’

In a strange kind of way Ricardo has done him a favour, because when someone's got in his face for the first time like that, the way he handled it made people like him even more.

If he’d hit back or been disrespectful in any way, or done an Adam Smith Neale for instance, then his reputation could have been ruined. Since then, his reputation has improved because of how he reacted.

An arrogant person would have mocked Ricardo in the aftermath of winning the title during his interviews – but he never did. He’s just talked about it all calmly, played it down and focused on his own achievement

Are his debut fireworks the stuff of legend?

He hit a nine-darter and won the title on his World Series debut, hit a nine-darter and won the title on his Players Championship debut and has now hit a nine-darter and won the title on his European Tour debut.

If anyone had come up with this as a script for a fictional darts film, it would be deemed too unrealistic!

You watch fantasy films like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and understand none of it is believable, and neither is the way Luke Littler has started his career! It’s like the Roy of the Rovers style storylines which were great but maybe couldn’t happen in real life.

What’s next?

What is Littler doing for the popularity of darts?

For years I have watched in horror at people scoffing at this sport and see it's just as a pub game that doesn't mean anything.

With Luke Littler’s help in just a few months of being involved in the big time, it’s getting a lot more respect than ever before and we should all be incredibly grateful.

Whether it’s how he’s playing, the way he projects himself and how well he’s coped taking darts into the mainstream. He was playing darts with the lead actress from Stranger Things like it was a completely normal thing to do for goodness sake! It doesn't get much bigger than that. Just imagine who he could be up against in the media lead up to New York in June.

Did he come across as arrogant on that show? Absolutely not.

We don’t know what his personal ceiling is or what darts will look like in five years, but we’re all excited about the journey.

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