Judd Trump admits he was gutted to see the proposed Saudi Arabia Masters ditched during the Covid pandemic.
And the Juddernaut insists that if the Middle East ever came up with a golf-style big-money rival tour that every snooker player would bite their hands off to sign up.
An event scheduled for Riyadh in October 2020 was due to carry a massive first prize of £500,000 – the same as the World Championship – and a total prize fund of £2.5million.
READ MORE:
- Crystal Ball: Predicting Snooker's Top Ten In Ten Year's Time
- Betfred's World Mixed Doubles Outrights*
And that level of reward eclipsed even the lucrative Chinese tournaments that fell off the calendar due to Covid and remain missing.
The Matchroom group that owns World Snooker Tour have promoted huge boxing shows in the country.
Anthony Joshua won his rematch against Andy Ruiz there, but lost a second fight trying to avenge a first defeat against Oleksandr Usyk earlier this year.
And Trump, 33, has kept a keen eye on the situation in golf that saw established PGA stars jump ship for the Saudi-backed LIV Tour having had mega-millions dangled in front of them.
Direct financial comparisons between the sports are clearly unrealistic as only a select handful of snooker players including Trump are capable of earning seven-figure sums in a season.
Some golfers with fortunes in the tens of millions turned down the Saudis in the knowledge they were already set for life anyway – making the decision to stay loyal easier.
And of course Saudi Arabia has often been accused of using top-level sport to cover the country’s dubious human rights record.
Amnesty International has highlighted the country’s “abysmal” reputation, due to restrictions on freedom of expression and women’s rights, as well as the use of the death penalty for offences not recognised as crimes elsewhere.
But former world champion Trump hopes a planned 10-year deal for the actual tournament can be resurrected, while claiming that no snooker player could afford to turn down any actual rival Middle East circuit.
Trump said: “I don’t think the event will still happen now – I fear that one has gone. Look, you never know much what is going on behind the scenes.
“It was great to see the numbers on offer when that Saudi Arabia tournament was first proposed and announced. It is long gone now, but I hope they can replace it with something similar.
“If that was snooker what has happened in golf and there was an alternative tour put forward by the Saudis, I think every player would leave.
“The golfers were of course in a different situation, and were pretty financially secure to start with. So for me some of them chose the wrong thing.
“They already had $30million, $40m, $50m in the bank and there was no need to do it. In snooker 99 per cent of players are living pay cheque to pay cheque.
“So it would be a bit of a no-brainer. It could only help snooker if the money and the competition was there.
“It would benefit everyone in the long run. We have seen in golf that the PGA put up the money in some of their events and found money from somewhere.
“A few players have been a bit greedy, but in the long run I think that will benefit golf.
“Hopefully we can get new tournaments in new territories in the future. The whole of the Middle East are trying to get into their sport now.
“I hope we can be a part of that in the future – as well as places like America. I have had numerous calls from America to go there for exhibitions.
“So there is interest there, even if we had to change a format here or there to make it look a bit quicker and more free-flowing.”
Trump would love to see snooker continue to find new territories to stage tournaments but reckons the players themselves have a big role to play in spreading the gospel with their style of play.
He added: “We would love to have more big tournaments and especially without the Chinese events that has left a massive hole, and something missing.
“It is also down to the players though to make the game bigger and more appealing. Maybe some of them don’t always do their best at that.
“Things like rolling into the pack and stuff like that is never going to help. So some of it is down to the players themselves.
“They have to take responsibility and make the game more attractive as a spectacle, and more free-flowing.
“The more exciting the game is, the more countries will see it and put their hands up and want to stage and host events.
“If there were 128 Ronnie O’Sullivans, I have no doubt that there would be a tournament every single week of the year.
“I think the style of play needs to be looked at a bit, and also players realising how they might come across on TV playing a certain way.
“And it works both ways, the players have their bit to do, but they also want World Snooker to be bringing in more sponsors behind the scenes to try and help us get more events on.”
*18+ | BeGambleAware
