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The inaugural World Snooker Bahrain Championships starts this coming Saturday and will feature four locally based players in the ‘WildCard’ round much akin to the two ranking events in China.

Snooker’s appeal is growing at pace in the middle east and this Championship is an excellent addition to the calendar not only for the extra event for the main tour pro’s but also to grow the World Snooker brand and the chance that it offers players based in the host country.

The in form player of the season has so far without doubt been World number 1 Ronnie O’Sullivan but he has withdrawn from this event through illness. This gives the evergreen Steve Davis a bye through to round two, something he will be delighted with after his performance against Ronnie in the recent Premier League.

Judd Trump has been very bullish about his chances in the media recently and is confident he has the ability to win a ranking title this season. Much has been spoken about this fantastic talent over the last few years as he has emerged onto the world stage and until the Grand Prix he hadn’t not really shown that talent on the biggest stage. The Grand Prix was his coming-of-age tournament and with a bit of luck and a decent draw would be a good pick for Bahrain.

It is also good to see Graeme Dott back after his injury and both Stephen Lee and Mathew Stevens return to centre-stage after both having qualified for this event.

Further Reading:

• Bahrain Championship News (Worldsnooker.com)
• Trump - I Fear No One (Worldsnooker.com)
• O’Sullivan to miss Bahrain event - (BBC Snooker)
• Trump targets Bahrain Snooker title - (BBC Point West - Video)

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18th August 2008

The BBC break the news that Bahrain are to host a World Ranking event this November, a tournament that has been added to the calendar at the 11th hour. Story below:

Bahrain get World Snooker Ranking Event

The Bahrain Championship, held in the capital Manama will run from the 8th-15th November and will feature the top 16 plus 16 qualifiers and 6 local wildcards.

This comes off the back of the bad news from 2 weeks ago when both 888.com and Saga Insurance pulled out of major sponsorship deals. It can only be healthy for the sport to have another territory represented on the ‘World Ranking Tour’.

Snooker in the Middle East is growing in popularity and a bringing a ranking event to the region can only further develop the following that snooker has.

I have always been an advocate of making it a true world tour and the only way to do this was by bringing ranking events to the calendar from other regions and countries outside of the UK and Ireland.

Money is the Middle East is also not in short supply so sponsorship of the event will not be difficult to find and it is excellent that we now have 8 ranking tournaments for the 08/09 season (including the World Championships.)

What this does mean is that the players will once again be very busy this side of the season with 5 of the 8 ranking events happening before December, I am sure the players will be delighted however that another tournament has been found and there is more chance for ranking points and more chance to earn a decen living from the game.

In my opinion the best news since the China Open!

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