Crucible competitors aware of betting cost

World Snooker chairman Hearn insisted he would not tolerate the Crucible showpiece being marred by scandal such as the one which overshadowed last year’s final.

The eve of the Sheffield final saw the publication of a sting on world No 1 John Higgins, who was accused of agreeing to take a bribe to fix matches.

Higgins was cleared but was suspended for six months for giving the misleading impression he would be prepared to deliberately lose frames as well as failing to report the approach.

After the draw for this year’s championship, Hearn said: “You have to educate first and I think we’ve done that. The other side is the punishment. If you mess around with this, it’s life. All the things you built up, all the things that have been given to you are going to be lost once and for all.”

First round draw (tournament April 16-May 2): J Cope v A Pagett, D Junhui v J Burnett, J Higgins v S Lee, N Robertson v J Trump, M Allen v M Stevens, R Walden v R McLeod, M Williams v R Day, S Maguire v B Hawkins, R O’Sullivan v D Dale, S Murphy v M Campbell, G Dott v M King, S Hendry v J Perry, A Carter v D Harold, P Ebdon v S Bingham, M Selby v J Robertson, M Fu v M Gould.