World number four Mark Selby has been talking about how he views the PartyPoker.com Premier League, as well as the difficulties posed by the clash with the recent Bahrain Championship…
To read the article, please click here to visit Sporting Life. Mark’s quotes in full are:
On how highly he rates the tournament:
“I think it would be up there just as much. You look at the players in it and you’ve got possibly eight of the best players in the world so it would be more or less like winning the Masters where your playing the top 16 players.
“So to win a tournament like that is a hell of an achievement. If i was to go on and win it I’d put it up there with winning a ranking event
“It’s been really good it’s something new to me. I’ve not really experienced it before but it’s been really good. I’ve enjoyed all the hype of it and hopefully I can do really well in it to maintain my place in it next year.”
On whether the tournament can attract new people to the game:
“Yeah I think it can because it’s a little bit different from a normal ranking tournament.
“There’s not as many points at stake so there’s not as much pressure. People are just playing for the sake of playing for the money so there’s a little bit less pressure on your shoulders.
“But I think its good. Week in week out you’re practising with more or less the best players in the world so match practise wise you can’t get any sharper
On the Bahrain clash and the knock-on effect on his ranking:
“In the last few years it’s not been a problem but this year it’s clashed with the Bahrain Championship with me having to pull out of Bahrain.
“I just think there needs to be a bit more talking between Barry Hearn and World Snooker so they don’t clash. I mean, I think its brilliant for the players to play in the Premier League but they don’t want to be playing in it if they’re going to be missing tournaments as well.
“As a ranking tournament I’m not getting any points at all so other players are catching up with me points-wise and it stops me progressing to where I want to get to in my career so the more tournaments i can play in the better.”
It is hard to disagree with anything Mark says really as the League has really become an integral part of the snooker calendar in the last few years, seeing the very best players meet on a weekly basis. Mark needs a draw against fellow débutante Joe Perry this week in order to finish top and avoid Ronnie O’Sullivan in the play-offs, quite a prize considering that the world number one had won the event for the last four years. That said, the likelihood is that he will have to beat O’Sullivan at some stage if he is to win the event, so perhaps it might not be that important after all!