Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, April 8th: looking forward to the “second spring” of Chinese billiards — exclusive interview with Wang Tao, vice chairman and secretary general of China Billiards Association
Xinhua News Agency reporter Zheng Zhiliang Jinxiong
As Robertson defeated Lisovsky in the final, another World Snooker China Open ended. Wang tao, vice chairman and secretary-general of china billiards association, said in an exclusive interview with xinhua news agency that billiards is experiencing new developmental period in china and is looking forward to the “second spring”.
New Challenges
“China Open has been successfully held in Beijing for 15 consecutive years, which has become a business card for Beijing and snooker. Ding Junhui won the championship in 2005 also added a bright color to this business card.” Wang Tao said.
At the China Open that year, Ding Junhui defeated Hendry, the “Emperor of billiards”, and won his first ranking championship, which also brought the development of Chinese billiards into the fast lane. Fifteen years later, the speed of speeding on the lane slowed down.
Wang Tao said frankly that in the past few years, China’s billiards population was about 70 million to 80 million, but at present, the choices of the masses are more diversified. According to statistics, the number of billiard halls has decreased by about 20%, and the current number of billiards population is about 50 million. “But at present, the competition system of the three billiards projects (snooker, Chinese style and 9 balls) has been completed, so the impact is relatively not very big.”
Wang Tao said that the association is also considering whether to put the China Open in a second-, third-or even fourth-tier city. “Does it accomplish the mission of a historical period? Do you want to change?”
Jiangxi held the Snooker World Open and the Chinese Billiards World Championship before TTL, where the enthusiasm of the audience left a deep impression on Wang Tao. “In TTL, the competition was full. People thought it was a very happy thing to see a professional competition. (China Open) where should such a good competition be needed by the people, where are we going to put it.”
“Zero tolerance”
before the Chinese Billiards World Championship at the beginning of the year, the Chinese Taiwan Association made a decision to add a lifetime ban to Yu Delu, who played fake balls.
In May 2018, Yu Delu was temporarily banned for gambling and was investigated. The results of the investigation were released in December, he was banned by the world professional billiards and snooker association for 10 years and 9 months for manipulating the game and getting rewards, and the additional punishment of the china taiwan association directly declared the end of his career.
“The relevant lottery is actually a legal category in Britain, but every player will sign an agreement on the day he enters the professional competition, and players and relevant people are strictly prohibited from participating.” Wang Tao revealed that there had been some small signs before. In 2016, she made a special trip to Britain to give warning education lessons to British travelers. Similar situations rarely occurred after that, but Yu Delu did not stop. “So in order to purify the environment, we will impose additional penalties for life-long ban. The problem of fake balls, gambling balls and doping should be zero tolerance in the sports industry.”
At the same time of issuing tickets, the China Taiwan Association also issued three policies: signing a joint player supervision agreement with the Taiwan Association; Establishing a professional snooker player Committee; Conducting warning education meetings before all domestic competitions.
“Ding Junhui, Liang Wenbo and Tian Pengfei are obvious clean players in the player Committee, and there are also representatives sent by the association.” Wang Tao said that the association is currently working with enterprises to set up a training institute in Sheffield, England, to integrate the players participating in professional competitions in Britain with social resources, which is both a supervision and a guarantee for their training and life.
“After Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo, we also trained a group of players, but the small players wanted to be self-disciplined first. It is really difficult to resist temptation and loneliness and to have achievements.” Wang Tao said. The establishment of the above-mentioned Training Institute is one of the targeted measures of China Taiwan Association.
In the reform
according to wang tao’s introduction, the substantive reform of the china-taiwan association is already in progress and has now separated from the management of the small ball sports management center of the state general administration of sports, the general election will also be held in the future. “After decoupling, we will not rely on the General Administration of Sports as before, and our association needs to have a stronger sense of responsibility. Of course, after decoupling, the infrastructure construction of the association is more important, and it can absorb more social talents with ability and business knowledge to lay a solid foundation, which is a good thing for promoting billiards.”
Wang Tao revealed that the association is actively striving to enter billiards into the 2021 national games. “If billiards can really enter the next national games, it will be very helpful to the whole project.”
Regarding the next plan, Wang Tao said: “We will carry out a variety of billiards activities, to trade unions, to the folk, and even to the countryside.” She said: “Let everyone hold the competition together, bring the competition to the masses, and execute it layer by layer, so that Chinese billiards can have the second spring.”