Hearn hints at snooker World Cup

We always knew Barry Hearn's hopes for snooker were big - but quite how big, always remained to be seen.

Today in an interview published on the official world snooker website, the game's supremo spoke about his visions of one day introducing a Snooker World Cup.

I've already heard people dismissing the talk, and labelling it as rubbish.

But my opinions couldn't be further from these.

I'd love to see the sport go global, and this is another way of realising this ambition.

It could be exactly the trick to break up the current British dominance within the game.

While the top snooker rankings are currently made up of predominantly British players, I don't think players from other parts of the global are any less talented.

Sure, there are more Brits.

But players like Neil Robertson, Liang Wenbo, Marco Fu and Ding Junhui are just as gifted as any players in the game today.

A World Cup event where small teams from every nation compete aginst each other, could help to prove this and stoke up more enthusiasm for the sport elsewhere in the world.

I'm realistic in thinking that events like these are never going to be like they are in football or rugby where they're the ultimate prize.

For one, there would be no way of fairly distributing ranking points for performance.

And secondly, snooker isn't a team sport.

But I do believe that in Hearn's conquest to make the game more entertaining, this would be a giant step.

It would give players even more televised table time to look forward to and bring an extra element of fun into the game for fans.

I remember in 2000 watching the Nations Cup as Stephen Lee, Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Parrott and Jimmy White proudly wore their white waist coats to beat the Welsh team made up of Mark Williams, Matthew Stevens, Dominic Dale and Darren Morgan, 6-4 in the final.

A year later in the last event of this kind, Scotland's John Higgins, Alan McManus and Stephen beat a Republic of Ireland team made up of Ken Doherty, Fergal O'Brien and Michael Judge.

It was great watching so many of the top players united as one.

And today, with the sport slowly growing across the world, there would be the prospect of even more teams competing, and the event acting as a catalyst for more young hopefuls to pick up a cue...

So go on Barry, make it happen!

Bring back the glory days...

Here's John Higgins making a 147 for Scotland against Dennis Taylor representing Northern Ireland.