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New snooker format slated for Crucible
Snooker, 15:00, April 9, 2009 ,
Snooker chiefs hope a new, shortened version of the game to be trialled at the Crucible can replicate the success of Twenty20 cricket.
Provisionally titled 'Super6s' and featuring the same number of colours per frame as the regular format but only six reds, is set to be showcased by legends of the game at the World Championships in Sheffield later this month.
The bold move is seen as a bid to replicate cricket's short-format boom and answer critics like world number one Ronnie O'Sullivan, who branded snooker a "dying" sport and called for the governing body to revitalise it.
"As an observer of snooker you cannot churn out the same diet year after year," said the chairman of World Snooker, Sir Rodney Walker. "Look at what Twenty20 has done for cricket.
"It has brought in a whole new audience so what we have in mind we think would be appealing to a younger audience.
"The working party who looked into this thought that a six-ball tournament with matches that take an average of six to seven minutes to play, with maybe the best of five, best of 10 frames," he added in the Guardian.