Super 6s or Stupid 6s?
I turned on the radio on the weekend to the sound of Dennis Taylor’s dulcet tones singing “cos I wear the goggles”, his immortal line from Chas n Dave’s 1985 hit, ‘Snooker Loopy’.
It is not every day that you hear the loveable cockney duo and The Matchroom Mob on Radio 5 or any other station for that matter!
OK, it is ‘snooker’ time of the year with The Crucible just around the corner, but the main focus of debate between Eamonn Holmes and his guests was “how sport is changing”, with the frequent introduction of adapted versions.
Sam Delaney, a regular on the show, is entitled to his opinion, although I got the distinct impression from him that nobody else was entitled to theirs.
World Snooker announced in the media this week that they are to launch a Twenty20 version of the game, called Super 6s.
Delaney took the easy negative line and slated the announcement. He said that it was “outrageous” and accused those behind the concept of suffering from ‘attention deficit syndrome’. He went on to say that adaptations of sport like Twenty20 cricket were for the ‘Twitter’ generation. That may well be true, but if we live in the ‘Twitter’ generation then surely their needs must be met.
Global-snooker.com ask the question - is “Super 6s” a super or stupid move?
In January this year, Ronnie was quoted as saying Snooker needed the X-Factor!
Sir Rodney Walker, Chairman of World Snooker, announced the Super 6s and suggested that the governing body were already looking at the concept long before O’Sullivan’s outburst at The Masters.
Whether Super 6s is a good thing or bad thing, it certainly has people talking about the game leading up to the big one in Sheffield next week.
Who decides what is good or bad for a sport?
When Twenty20 was first announced, the cricket purists were up in arms about it and some even felt that it jeopardised all of the traditions that Cricket had built over centuries.
That may be true, but ‘one man’s meat is another man’s poison’ surely applies. We are in the 21st century and one thing that the public demands nowadays is choice.
Nobody is saying that ‘Super 6s’ will ever replace the World Championship. If best-of-nineteen matches played in church-like conditions is what you want, then that will be available at The Crucible event.
Not everyone is a purist though, and most sports have had to evolve in one way or another in order to keep up with the commercial demands of modern-day life.
One thing seems logical though, if nothing changes, then nothing will change.
It would be easy to look at major sporting events as they are now and forget that they haven’t always been in such a prime position.
The Ryder Cup is now one of the biggest individual sporting events in the world. Less than thirty years ago though, the event was on its last legs with nobody really interested in how many points the United States would win by.
The Premier League is the biggest football league in the world. It is only seventeen years since Sky became involved, saving the old Division One from its fast approaching anonymity.
Snooker’s Super 6s announcement has been likened to Twenty20, which is probably the most radical, and in many ways successful sporting adaptation in recent years, despite the Stanford controversy.
The concept of 6-reds events was first introduced by Sindhu Pulsirivong who staged a major event in Thailand last summer. The 6-red International attracted the likes of China Open champion, Peter Ebdon and Jimmy White, with Ricky Walden winning the Sangsom sponsored event.
The Bangkok event proved to be a huge success with players and fans and will be staged again in July, 2009, and no doubt influenced the governing body’s decision to introduce the Super 6s idea.
Whether six-minute frames with six reds is the best format, only time will tell, but at least World Snooker are making an attempt to move with the times.
Global-Snooker thinks that everyone involved in the game should get behind this and other new ideas that aim to expand interest in the game.
Tell us what you think here…
