Northern Ireland snooker star Mark Allen is adamant the sport is “crying out” for a return to China.
The Far East country has invested millions of pounds into the game in recent years with many of the brightest young talents now coming from China.
But, lucrative Chinese tournaments have fallen by the wayside and haven’t been staged since 2019 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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The International Championship, Shanghai Masters, China Championship, World Open and China Open boasted combined winners cheques of £900,000 alone.
And former Masters champion Allen admitted: “With the state the schedule is in, we’re crying out to get back to China.
“We have lost those tournaments which were a big part of the season for us players.
“Those tournaments have been replaced with smaller events, the players are desperate for some bigger events.
“Maybe we have to start looking away from China? Who knows whether we will go back there or what Covid has done to their economy.
“There was talk of a big Saudi Arabia event a couple of years ago with a £500,000 top prize, the same as the World Championship, but that’s gone silent as well.
“World Snooker did a great job during Covid getting events on, but it feels like we were playing more then which is worrying.
“I really hope they can pull something out of the hat because the players aren’t happy.”
Snooker is returning to Hong Kong next month for the Hong Kong Masters, but only the world’s top six have been invited to the event.
But players will be constrained to a secure bubble “closed loop” between the hotel and the venue.
World Snooker Tour Chairman Steve Dawson said: “Due to the pandemic, we have not been able to stage ranking events in China since 2019, which has adversely affected our tour. “But we will return to China as soon as restrictions are reduced, and we are striving to create new events, as we have done with the British Open, Turkish Masters, Hong Kong Masters and World Mixed Doubles.”
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