Snooker heads to Brazil
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| Dancing Lambada |
Why I’m telling you this? Because snooker is heading to Brazil, guys! Yeah, the captain of the World Snooker Enterprise Spaceship, Jean Luc Picard (meaning Barry Hearn :-P) made a big announcement yesterday, at a press conference in London. So, next year during 14-17 September Brazil will host a “Brazilian Masters". Hell, yeah! This is sooo cool! Snooker is becoming more latinoooo! :-))
Barry and his team are very excited about this new tournament. For the first year, the players will participate if invited. 12 big ranked players and 4 wildcards will do their best to impress the Brazilian crowds and the snooker lovers from the South-American land. The event will be a knock-out one, the first two rounds being "the best of seven frames" as for the semis and big final “best of nine" rule will be applied. Prizes money will rise up at least for $200,000. Now that’s something, huh?
And if I say that the beautiful, high-tech and cosmopolitan town of Sao Paolo will host the grand event then I’ve said enough. It seems like the venue will be the Transamerica Expo Centre, a modern and spacious hall.
Bonus alert!!! - The whole event will be broadcaster live on EuroSport! ;-)
"Brazil is a country with a great love of sport and an incredible sporting heritage. Snooker is very popular there and we want to tap into that support. Breaking into South America is a huge step towards our ambition of making snooker a truly global sport. These are exciting times for us, with this the latest in a series of new tournaments.", said Barry Hearn.
One of the first names to get a bye in this brand new tournament is the six-time world champion, the one and only, a true snooker legend - Steve Davis. "The Nugget" was compared with Zico and Rivelino of the baize, by the Brazilian Snooker Association’s chairman Marcilio Cavalcanti and it seems that Steve is no stranger of playing snooker n Brazil as in the early `80s, he played and won the match against Rui Chapeu, a local cult hero.
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| Barry Hearn (centre) - the intitiator of "lambading" snooker |
Another great name who will have to prove his "latino, smooth and provocative" moves :-)) is Shaun Murphy.
"I am over the moon to be going to Brazil. I never thought it would be on the snooker map. The more atmosphere the better, the louder the better, the more fun the better.", said " The Magician".
So the process of snooker globalisation is on and it seems, more then ever, that Hearn and his team are serious about making the world a perfect place for this wonderful sport. More tournaments, foreign names on the board - yep, we are internationally now! :-)) It’s such a joy to see that snooker is growing more and more and that many other countries are into this sport.
The ambitious Hearn said that he wants snooker to become the second religion of Brazil, knowing that the first one is football. And if everything will go according to plan, if the event will be a total blast, then it is very likely that it will be part of the world ranking tournaments. That’s how serious this is! ;-)
So, start practicing your "Lambada moves", put your rusty hips to work, because you are in for a "snooker do Brazil" treat. :-))
And to warm up a bit, here’s a song for you :-P
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