Barry Hearn has been the chairman of World Snooker for just a matter of days but already it is clear that changes are happening…
One of my (admittedly many), criticisms of the World Snooker website in the past has been the way that it existed solely to promote its own events, barely acknowledging the existence of outside events such as the Premier League in the past. As a result I was very surprised last night when I headed over to the site to find that they had reported on not only the 6-Red World Championship but also the ONEFORSEVEN event that took place in Wales this week.
Furthermore having commented on this via Twitter last night, Dave Hendon replied saying that as well as this World Snooker have also lifted the six-year ban on the sale of Snooker Scene at their venues and so the magazine will be on sale at the Masters in January.
While at first glance such changes may seem trivial, to me they are hugely encouraging and demonstrate a greater willingness on behalf of the governing body to recognise other events and publications than their own. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come…