Richard Hercock: Barbican week proves just why Hearn revolution is right on cue

After several years of the tournament – snooker’s second biggest event after the World Championship – being staged in Telford, a £2m revamp and the citizens of York persuaded Barry Hearn to head back up the M1.

The venue is tremendous, there are great transport links and the city is universally popular with the players as they induldge in a spot of pre-Christmas shopping.

Hearn, the World Snooker chairman, is determined to drag the sport into the modern era, having taken over when the calendar had just a handful of tournaments rattling about and enthusiasm for the sport was on the wane.

Not just sponsors, but players were moaning about their lot and fans were craving for new heroes to take over from the likes of Alex ‘Hurricane’ Higgins and Jimmy ‘Whirlwind’ White.

So Hearn, in his robust style, has taken snooker by the scruff of its neck and given the sport a massive shake-up.

In Hearn’s mind, he wants a snooker tournament played every week, 52 weeks a year, whether that be in Melton Mowbray or Melbourne.

That may be a little bit ambitious but you can not fault the guy for trying and his desire to make snooker univerally popular once more.

Of course he is going to make mistakes along the way, and he came in for some criticism last week from Mark Allen about how he has tinkered with the UK Championship format.

Everyone in snooker knows changes needed to be made, but it was acknowledged the three major events – the World Championship at the Crucible, the UK finals and the Masters – were the crown jewels of the sport and should be left alone.

So when it was announced that the format for the early rounds of York would mean a reduction in frames – to allow fans and television audiences to see a match finish in one session rather than a truncated two – it caused a few ripples.

Other minor changes have seen a roll-on, roll-off system where once one match finishes, another starts. It works at Wimbledon with the tennis and the game’s administrators hoped it would appeal more to the TV companies, too, so they had action all day long.

Allen is a guy who loves the game – I sat in the media room chatting with him the day before his outburst on TV – and his views should be taken on board by World Snooker.

But I do believe the changes at York have been positive. Cutting the frames down to best-of-11 mean there have been a few shocks along the way – we may even have seen the last of Ronnie O’Sullivan, the best player to have ever picked up a cue in my opinion – but I still think it is a credible format.

I do not mind the entrance music, either, even if, and I am showing my age here, I don’t recognise some of it. I also love listening to MC Rob Walker rattling on as he introduces the players.

An afternoon in a dreary press room at the snooker is enlightened by listening to this guy’s take on the world. A very funny guy who has also added to the entertainment value at snooker.

I just hope Hearn has tinkered enough with the UK Championship and keeps well away from changing the World Championship.

The Masters has a new home at the Alexandra Palace in January and that should be a bit more raucous if the darts is anything to go by at the same venue.

That is fine, because just like in cricket, the game needs to diversify to offer different formats to attract new fans.

But just like with the County Championship and Twenty20 in cricket, both forms of the sport can live side-by-side in snooker.

There is room for the razzmattaz of the shoot-outs against the clock, then the marathon 17-day trek to win the World Championship in Sheffield.

Being the best in the world should mean facing the toughest examination possible and you get that at the Crucible. Any weakness is exploited.

Whereas in the early rounds of York, where you can eke out six frames and progress, then players can sometimes sneak through.

Judd Trump, for example, in his first two rounds at York, did not play particularly well.

He is snooker’s rising star and poster boy and the sport needs players like him to come to the fore. Not since the days of Leeds cueman Paul Hunter have we seen a player with his youthful charm, matched with an amazing snooker talent. Since Paul’s tragic death, the sport has been waiting for a new star and Trump is as close as we have come.

But against Dominic Dale in the first round, he struggled, then admitted after edging out Ronnie O’Sullivan at the next hurdle that he needed his ‘B-game’.

But the first to six format meant he was able to reach the quarter-finals when maybe a longer contest would have found him wanting.

Obviously, the changes to snooker’s calendar have not only affected the top-ranked players. Those further down the food chain have found it tough, with some of the small Players Tour Championship events meaning players are happy just to earn enough to cover their travelling and hotel expenses.

Young players, too, will struggle with the costs, unless they are lucky and have families who can help out financially, and their problems also need to be addressed in the future.

But for all the faults that snooker has, and there have been teething problems this year, I believe the game is in good hands under Hearn.

He has been accused of being only interested in making money. Well that is not a crime. For, to do that, he needs to deliver a product fans want to see. Full houses attract sponsors, and that leads to increased prize pots, so everyone wins.

As long as he keeps his hands off the World Championship, then Hearn will do for me.

I am stumped by level of cricket

Is it just me or does anyone really care about England cricket’s forthcoming tour of Pakistan?

Don’t get me wrong, I love my cricket, brought up in a household where it took me a long time to realise that Geoffrey Boycott did not really have a Sir in front of his name. Thanks dad.

But this year, more than most, there seems to have been utter saturation when it comes to England.

It has got to the point where I actually forgot when they were playing, and even more worrying, did not really care.

The recent one-day series in India was one step too far for me – and, judging by the heavy defeats, for the players also.

I have simple needs. Give me a winter tour, a nice break to anticipate the county season, then those long summer days when cricket comes into its own.

Come September, I want a break from the sport. To recharge the batteries and whet my appetite once more for some winter sun in Barbados or Perth.

Instead, cricket’s administrators seem to want to flog the sport for every penny they can get out of it – don’t even talk about Twenty20 – and the worry is they will alienate the very fans they are trying to attract to the sport.