A FINAL FOR SNOOKER
During the World Championship this year, a lot has been said about how good or bad for snooker it would be if certain players won, lost or didn't play at all. It's just fitting that the final will be Mark Williams vs Zhao Xintong.
I read online quite a few people giving stick to Judd Trump for not being able to beat someone who's 50. As far as Trump is concerned, I think those critics make no sense. Williams is into the final and like his fellow Class of 92 players, he's still playing snooker at the highest level. There is no shame in losing to him, and he could well win it all - would it be bad for snooker, though?
I don't think so. I know that at 50, we don't expect Williams to still go on for years and years and we are all well aware of his greatness already, but as long as he plays snooker to this level he deserves everything he gets and I strongly disagree with people that indicate snooker has not gone forward. The Class of 92 just keep resisting time and for me all three of them are Top 5 all-time, therefore as long as they play their best snooker they remain great adverts for the sport.
Ronnie O'Sullivan didn't have the same fortune, losing his semifinal with a session to spare against his old "apprentice". This is not about Ronnie of course, but before we get to the player who beat him, I really want to praise the sport's greatest of all-time.
O'Sullivan's status as the "GOAT" was never on the line for this championship and in fact, nearing 50 and having won all that he has won, any achievement now is just a bonus, it's up for the next generations to catch up. And because of that, it was really admirable to see Ronnie fighting until the very end on Friday to try and take the match to a fourth session. Although it wasn't a successful effort, he was playing on for snookers and never pushing the boat out despite the humbling scoreline until the very end.
This championship added even more to O'Sullivan's greatness.
Now, to whom everyone is talking about: Zhao Xintong. Would it be good or bad to have him as snooker's World Champion?
There are two ways to look at it. The good one is that he would be China's first ever World Champion, doing wonders for the sport's popularity there. No other country has more people playing snooker, but Pool has really grown and become a worthy rival for snooker in the far east - finally having a World Champion might bring snooker back to the undisputed top.
Apart from that, Zhao is only 28 and plays a style of snooker that the fans love. Having him as the World Champion and the prospect of having him around the top for years to come would be wonderful.
But there's the other side to it: just over two years ago Zhao Xintong was caught amidst one of the biggest match-fixing scandals in sport's history.
He was not charged with fixing a match himself, but did facilitate and intermediate bets on fixed matches in a scheme that involved other 9 players. A couple of them got life bans, others were given several years, but Xintong was only banned for 20 months. A ban that the Chinese federation upheld to 30 months, meaning that in China he's still banned.
I see many fans upset that all this hasn't been mentioned enough during this tournament, while most praise him for making it this far as an "amateur" and having "taken a long time out". I fully understand that frustration and I had to bring this up, because that's exactly why I don't want him to win and I don't think I ever will.
However, I also understand that there's not much of a point for broadcasters to keep bringing this up. It won't do the sport any good and it won't change the fact that he has served his ban and he will be around for years and years to come.
A similar situation happened to John Higgins in 2010. He also had a very successful return to snooker and the ban rarely gets mentioned. Both have paid for their mistakes and life goes on - my only problem with all that is that they paid a cheap price and when those bans are short you inevitably put the sport into disrepute.
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