bwin Sportsblog - Other Sports - Aussie Aussie Aussie

I was up late last night watching the culmination of the World Snooker Championship and with Neil Robertson winning and him being Australian then this could do wonders for the sport. But it really needed it after the serious kick in the teeth it has had over the weekend with the breaking news that the defending World Champion and world number 1 John Higgins was caught on camera appearing to set up a deal in which he would deliberately lose frames for money. This is absolutely devastating for Snooker because people are going to say that if someone like Higgins stoops to this with the amount of prize money that he wins then what price lesser players who don't earn as much. So hopefully Robertson's win will go some way to counter balance that by letting people see that the game isn't just about players from the home countries. Robertson becomes the first player since Cliff Thorburn in 1980 to win the title who didn't come from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. So it is a huge boost for the sport at a time when it really needs it the most. Is Higgins guilty? Well finding proof of a player deliberately losing a frame or a match would be impossible during actual game play. The standard of play is so high that to lose any one frame only requires a player to miss one shot and anyone can make a mistake so you cannot possibly prove that. I hope that the authorities come down hard on Higgins if he is proven guilty but the proof needs to come from the taped evidence. It is always sad when things like this happen because other innocent players are inadvertently drawn into it.