by sportswriters Zheng Zhi and Hu Jiefei
SHANGHAI, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- With the global landscape of snooker continuing to evolve, Jason Ferguson, chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, has already become a frequent visitor to China. The three consecutive tournaments held across China at the start of this season have kept him in the country for an extended stay.
Held from July 27 to August 29, this season's World Snooker Tour features an innovative "China Swing" lasting more than a month, with the Shanghai Masters, the revived China Open in Taiyuan and the Wuhan Open forming a continuous stretch of top-level competition in China.
"It does mark a significant change, it's testament to where snooker is today. Snooker is growing exponentially around the world. But China is really the biggest growth that we've seen in the past decade. So it's inevitable that more events will be added to the calendar," he said.
"This China Swing is actually something new. It gives us the opportunity to allow our media and our stories to grow. What a great way to start the season, Shanghai Masters, the best of the best, the best players that we've ever seen in the sport in the world competing to kick off our season.
"And I'm seeing a greater increase in player participation, not just in World Snooker Tour events, but one of the things that makes me happy is seeing our players benefit from the growth in the sport. I see our players out launching their own brands and I see our players out doing localized activities and walking the streets in great locations. And this is great to tell stories about how beautiful China is, it's also great to tell the story about China's relationship with snooker.
"It is just testament to our growth. It's a natural evolution of a sport that is unfolding. And it's great to see our players really benefiting."
The deepening relationship between China and snooker is closely linked with the influence of Ding Junhui, whose breakthrough victory at the China Open 21 years ago marked China's first-ever snooker ranking-event title - a milestone that has profoundly changed the trajectory of the sport ever since.
"We can never underestimate what Ding Junhui has done for our sport, not just here in China, but throughout the world he is hugely popular. He is such a nice person. And he's been such a great ambassador," Ferguson noted.
"Only a few weeks ago. I was in London at a big sports economy conference. Ding Junhui agreed to come with me and sit and tell his story to the audience, and I think to start with he was very nervous, but everyone was so engaged to hear this story since 2005. Winning the China Open, beating Stephen Henry, the best player in the world. That was a real boom time, it was a real opportunity for snooker to step up to the next level."
Ferguson said Ding's contribution had inspired generations of Chinese players and created the foundation for the country's recent success.
"He's inspired a nation to take up this sport, and I could never stop thanking him for this. And the efforts that he's made have resulted in the last two years. The world snooker champion coming from China. Zhao Xintong and Wu Yize are now flying that flag, but I see a new energy in Ding too. I see an energy where he is now chasing them as well and I think it's great to watch."
Among the new generation of Chinese players, Zhao Xintong holds a particularly special place in Ferguson's memory. In an earlier interview with Xinhua 11 years ago, Ferguson was asked who would emerge as the next Ding Junhui. He avoided safe, generic replies and singled out Zhao by name.
"First of all, I used to be a snooker player. Not many people will remember me because I'm old now, and I've been retired from snooker for many years," he laughed.
"I retired in 2004, but I played on the tour for 14 years. And for four of those years, I also ran the governing body because the sport was very small back then.
"The one thing you do learn by playing snooker is the ability to spot the natural side of a player that little bit of special magic touch. And you know you can actually hear it when a player strikes the cue ball in snooker, you can hear the perfection in the strike when you've played the game to a high standard."
Recalling his first impression of Zhao, Ferguson said: "I saw Zhao Xintong, I think he was 14 years old in our academy in Beijing, and he played shot after shot with perfection, with beautiful natural timing and no fear. And I looked at him then and thought he would win the World Championship. He was exceptional.
"It took a few years. I was wondering for a while, maybe I'd got this wrong. He eventually went on, won the UK Championship, went on further to win the World Championship, which was just for me, personally, a very emotional moment to see somebody had known from being very young lift that world title. I almost felt a great sense of pride that it had finally happened."
When asked 11 years later who could become the next rising star, Ferguson admitted the answer was now more difficult to predict.
"I think the question now is even more difficult to answer, because there are so many of those naturally talented players. There is such a fine line between winning the World Championship and losing in the first round. The line is so much finer than people realize.
"I also think there are talents rising in other parts of the world. We're seeing great players come out of Eastern Europe. I think one day we'll see a world champion from Poland or Ukraine or Latvia. The junior side in Poland is doing exceptionally well. So I think it's very hard to predict the future."
Beyond individual champions, Ferguson said his long-term goal has been to build a more inclusive development system for snooker worldwide.
"One goal I have pursued throughout my career and take great pride in is ensuring people everywhere, regardless of geography or wealth, get an equal chance to turn professional and compete for titles. The talent-support framework that proved successful when first implemented in China is now being rolled out across the globe."
That ambition, Ferguson explained, fuels his push for snooker's inclusion in the Olympic Games.
"I'm getting old, but I have unfinished business in snooker. Unfinished business is to take snooker to the highest level. For me as an administrator, I want to see our development opportunities worldwide expand even further. Snooker is still in some countries seen as a sport that sits just outside mainstream sports. China has adopted snooker where we see it in schools. It's not the same everywhere in the world.
"The reason I want to go to the Olympic Games is I want equal opportunities for every single sport and every single sports person. It is deeply ingrained in my DNA to do that. We have to be an Olympic sport."
Ferguson said Olympic recognition could help accelerate the development of snooker in regions where the sport still lacks resources.
"If we enter the Olympic Games, funding for the development of snooker will open up in every country in the world, even territories where we are not currently doing well," he said. "That's what excites me about the Olympics, and who knows where the next Zhao Xintong, Ding Junhui, Wu Yize and Ronnie O'Sullivan will come from?
"But the Olympic Games are really the feeder system for sport development. And of course, what would make me prouder than seeing athletes in snooker on a podium, receiving medals in the great name of their own nations?"
As snooker expands globally, another question has continued to draw attention: will the World Snooker Championship leave Sheffield one day and potentially come to China?
"Who knows what the future holds? I believe the World Championship will stay in Sheffield at the Crucible Theatre, and I believe that that area will continue to expand year after year. I think the economics of what we do makes sense. The local government makes sense to our host cities.
"We've seen the development of Yushan around the World Open here in China, a small city, with an event in a sports hall in a school that has become a 4,000-seat stadium, a museum, a hall of fame, an academy, and now known as World Billiard City, [and] even the riverside is called Snooker Bay. I see the development of the World Championship around as a similar model.
"There is something in sport about traditions and creating history. I think the one thing that I'm proud of is that China's snooker is creating its own history. It isn't just about the World Championship. It's actually about the China Open, it's about the Shanghai Masters here. What a fantastic story we're telling here in our 20th year.
"So I think every event we do creates its own history. The World Championship for now, I do know for the next 10 years, at least probably 15, that it will remain in Sheffield in the United Kingdom." ■
