Snooker column: Nick Metcalfe on snooker's player mutiny as WST lays down the law

Smell of mutiny in the air and WST aren't fronting up enough

There's plenty of angst in the snooker world at present and it's come to a head this month with five players - John Higgins, Mark Selby, Luca Brecel, Ali Carter and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh - signing up to play in a lucrative exhibition event in Macau, China, at the same time as the Northern Ireland Open.

As tempting as it is to take a dogmatic one-sided view on such matters, the truth is this isn't a classic black and white issue.

Let's take it from the players' side first. It isn't hard to see why the star names, particularly those in the autumn of their careers, are attracted by a decent pay day without the pressure of intense tournament play. Especially when they can effectively use the Macau event as preparation for a Chinese tournament, the International Championship, starting soon after.

Without being inside their heads, I'm pretty confident in predicting that they'll be thinking, is it really a big deal? If I still play in 95 per cent of the tournaments on the tour, will one or two weeks spent elsewhere really hurt?

Jumping over the fence, you can also understand why the World Snooker Tour sprang into action. They would doubtless argue that if they allowed Macau to go ahead on those late October dates, a challenging precedent would be set. Who's to say that players, suddenly feeling more emboldened, wouldn't then decide to play in another exhibition during a main tour event in November or December?

A WST statement made it clear that players are perfectly free to choose which tournaments they can play in, but according to their contracts "must not do anything that is detrimental to the WST or a WST event". It was made clear that if the Macau event did go ahead, the players involved would be referred to the WPBSA Disciplinary Committee.

The statement was forceful in tone and was accompanied by some typically strident comments from former WST chairman Barry Hearn. By the way, I was glad to be already sitting down when I read Hearn accusing players of "selling their souls for an extra few quid". I'm a fan of Hearn, but this has to be projection from him. By his own admission, he puts the making of a quick buck above almost anything else and has spent his life advocating the values of selfishness.

It's little wonder that the "Macau Five" were spooked, with the exhibition event swiftly pushed back to Christmas. But it won't feel like the end of the story for the players involved, who will inevitably feel bruised and sour.

It would help if WST was properly available to explain themselves. Nearly everybody I know in the game is in wholehearted agreement with Shaun Murphy, who broke ranks last week to call for more input from current WST chairman Steve Dawson.

Dawson has been the invisible man since taking over in his role more than two years ago. I can count the number of media interviews he's given on the fingers of one hand. At first, we cut him some slack, partly because we realised that following in the footsteps of Hearn was a tough ask. But that's worn thin now. I don't think anyone would care if he's the driest man on the planet, walking into every press conference with a giant spreadsheet. He needs to be more vocal, on this issue and plenty of others.

In recent days, UK champion Mark Allen has gone as far as calling for players to boycott an event, saying "the statements WST have been putting out are amateurish" and claiming "the game is in disarray".

The truth is, when you actually attend an event - and I was at the English Open recently - it's hard to think the sport is in crisis. It feels like business as usual, with packed crowds enjoying the world's best players showing off their skills. There are still decent tournaments on most weeks, shown on a number of mainstream television channels and with generally healthy crowds. Plus many of those pathways previously closed off due to the Covid pandemic, like the ones heading to China, are finally opening up again.

But the background noise is one of discontent. Not just over the Macau situation but tournament scheduling, prize money, venues and the sport's future direction. WST could help themselves, and the rest of us, by not going into hiding quite so often and properly fronting up. The ball is in their court really.

Trump ignores scheduling concerns to land brilliant double

A number of players have complained about tournament scheduling recently, but Judd Trump hardly did the moaners any favours by winning the English Open in Brentwood and flying straight off to the Wuhan Open to claim victory there.

I can't pretend to be unhappy with the way Trump has gone about his business. I've found the timing of the complaints to be a touch unsettling. Given the utter miseries of the pandemic and the barren calendars of recent seasons, are players really choosing the first autumn we're properly back in business to start nitpicking over the schedule?

I'm not suggesting that a Sunday night finish in the UK and a Monday morning start in China is the happiest piece of planning we've ever seen in sport. But it's a million times better than the calendar being so empty, bored players are swanning off to play in pool events when they're not on the golf course.

I hear the argument for a concentrated series of tournaments in Asia at one time. But promoters and broadcasters in China are unlikely to go for that. Imagine trying to sell the third or fourth of four successive events, when fans already feel sated and interest is naturally on the wane.

I know plenty will disagree with this, but I think I'd prefer players to swallow their medicine on this one and knuckle down. It looks like that's what Trump has done, and it hasn't done him any harm.

Location, location, location behind Northern Ireland success

it is a genuine shame that it's the Northern Ireland Open that has been adversely affected by some big names pulling out, as it's become such a special event on the calendar.

The Welsh Open probably still stands atop the Home Nations tree, given its rich history dating back to 1992, but the Northern Ireland Open has outstripped its English and Scottish counterparts. And it's mainly done it by sticking in the one place. A buzzing vibrant city in Belfast and a gleaming first-class venue in the Waterfront Hall have already become synonymous with the event.

Contrast that with the English Open. The first year, when it was held in Manchester, the players had to stop during the final because of the din made by rain falling on the roof. The next stop was Barnsley, where every time I went to the press room, I was asked if I wanted a towel to go swimming. Then it was Crawley, and a leisure centre Ronnie O'Sullivan claimed "smelled of urine". You get the picture. It hasn't been a dignified run.

Now the event is at the Brentwood Leisure Centre, a place that brings a new meaning to the word unprepossessing. The tournament still doesn't feel like it has a proper home.

There are other reasons why the Northern Ireland Open, that starts this weekend, fares so well. We've seen some brilliant champions, thrilling finals and in the last two years a home winner in Mark Allen. But location is a major part of the success. This is surely a lesson for the whole calendar.