John Higgins returns to the green baize
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| I`ll be back! |
A week ago, on the STV web-site we could find an exclusive interview given by John Higgins from his snooker club. A little bit shy but strategically sat next to the snooker practice table, John shared his thoughts about coming back to snooker and into the snooker world.
He admitted he didn’t lift up the cue for five months, which has been very hard since he has never made such a long break in his career, but now he started practicing again.
It wasn’t an interview filled with sparkles and fireworks, nor one where the inside stories were revealed. No. It was an interview mainly about what John wants to do next, how he feels about the comeback and what does he want to prove.
He has played snooker since he was 9 years old, so this whole twisted situation wasn’t something very nice, but he says that:
"It has maybe reinvigorated me a bit. Sometimes you can go through the motions and you are maybe getting a little blasé. It's given me a whole new appetite to try and succeed in the game."
Asked by the reporter how would it be like if we were to win another world champion title (he has three until now) John replayed that it would be even more special than winning the first one or all of them, considering the situation in hand.
He seemed very pleased with his new role of being the snooker ambassador (role that, as you all know, Barry Hearn gave him), role that honors him deeply.
Still, he admitted that the comeback won’t be any bed of roses and that there are a lot of factors involved in this (colleagues ex/new fans), but still he is very happy and anxious to make it back to the green baize.
After all those interviews where you could almost see a tear in the corner of his eye and you could hear his fainted voice, this one wanted to be a more "Phoenix like" (you know the rebirth from his own ashes), with no more drama or emotions involved. And I think that giving the interview to a Scottish television was no coincidence. I think he wanted to feel among his people, after the whole world threw rocks at him.
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| Higgins has a new appetite for snooker |
He is in a very difficult position, mainly because of what he did and didn’t do and to be honest I don’t know if he will ever succeed to make a proper comeback. His reputation is tarnished, there’s no doubt about that and he needs all the support he can get to revive it. It’s not enough to play good snooker.
The date for his big return is during the EPTC 5 event, in which he will play against Joe Jorgia. This will be a great challenge, since I know that these events have audience, so it would be interesting to see the reception he gets.
What’s certain is that he couldn’t stay home and hide from the rest of the world forever. He needed to make the first step and maybe that doing it in a mini-tournament it’s not such a bad idea. There will always be the ones who will support him and the ones who won’t, but in the end the time will decide who stays and who doesn’t in this sport. ;-)
You can watch the whole interview here.
P.S. Tell me, what do you think of all of this? Does Higgins have a change to regain the respect of his fans and make a successful comeback in the snooker business? Please post your comments below.
1 comments:
I've lost respect for him, whatever he says or however he plays.
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