A new snooker league has launched in China as the country bids to ‘move from a major billiards nation to a leading powerhouse.’
China has been the rising force in snooker ever since Ding Junhui ushered in a boom in popularity with his 2005 China Open win.
There has been steady progress since then and with Zhao Xintong becoming China’s first world champion last year and Wu Yize their second earlier this month, the sport is hitting new heights in popularity.
The South China Morning Post report that the Chinese Billiards Club Professional League (CBL) is a new step to grow the sport still further and encourage young players into the professional game.
The CBL will consist of eight teams, playing from May to December in home and away fixtures in China, starting next week.
The fixtures will involve both snooker and pool contests, in singles and doubles matches.
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There will be a league table which will produce the draw for the quarter-finals in October, with a grand final in December.
The teams will be made up of players from a ‘100+N’ talent pool which includes 100 domestic players, foreign players who have signed up for the league and the 128 professionals on the World Snooker Tour.
With a busy WST calendar ahead of them, the SCMP report states that ‘involvement seems unlikely’ for top professional players.
However, over the summer break for the professional circuit, there is nothing stopping pro players getting involved.
The project appears to be more about identifying and nurturing young talent, with the aim for those players to turn professional and compete with the world’s best.
Jiang Shicai, president of the Chinse Billiards and Snooker Association (CBSA) said: ‘Chinese billiard sports has entered a golden age of high-quality development. With Zhao Xintong and Wu Yize winning World Championships one after another, that gave us the confidence to launch the new league.
‘The association shall continue to optimise and improve league operations, and work together with the entire industry to help China move from a major billiards nation to a leading powerhouse.’
An estimated 50 to 60 million people play snooker in China, with around 300,000 clubs in the country.
Pool variant Heyball has become very popular in China in recent years, but with Zhao and Wu conquering the Crucible in back-to-back years, snooker’s popularity is through the roof once more.
With 432 matches scheduled for the new CBL, the production line of top talent from China likely to become even more fruitful.