Snooker: Cash cuts could start revolution

British Open competitors arriving at Telford yesterday were greeted by the news that the advertised prize fund of £666,800 has been reduced to £450,000. The £92,500 first prize is now £52,000 and there are cuts all the way down.

This can only increase the chance of three former world champions, Steve Davis, Terry Griffiths and Stephen Hendry, removing the entire board of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association at an EGM at Shifnal, Shropshire, on Wednesday.

Apart from general issues of competence, the board are under threat because of the appointment – all the more controversial since an EGM had already been requisitioned – of an unproven company, World Snooker Enter- prises (WSE), to manage the WPBSA's commercial affairs. As Hendry put it on BBC's Newsnight: "The WPBSA appealed for an investor partner. Three companies put bids in. One was investing [an initial] £2.5m and guaranteeing nine world-ranking tournaments a year for five years. Another was guaranteeing £1m, and the last was guaranteeing no investment. And it's transpired it's going with the one that's investing no money."

On 30 June 2001, WPBSA's reserves were £3.1m. Last week, they admitted they were down to £800,000. This is the last season in which tobacco sponsorship is permitted, except for the Embassy World Championship. They also face a High Court action in March in which Trans World International are claiming £3.1m.

Last season, WPBSA promoted nine world-ranking events. Initially, they said they could afford only six this year but by economies, they aim to squeeze out the money for two more. WSE recently asked Regal to agree that prizes for the Welsh and Scottish Opens be reduced from £597,000 to £500,000 each, so the difference could go towards another ranking event. Regal refused.

Stan James, the bookmakers, who paid £75,000 to become title sponsors of last year's British Open, declined to renew for this week's event, as their marketing director, Steve Walsh, put it, "in the light of previous experience in dealings with the WPBSA".

On TV, snooker remains strong. Chris Small and Alan McManus are not top box office, but their LG Cup final last month peaked at 3.4m viewers to give BBC2 a 30.7 per cent share of the terrestrial audience. Despite the figures, the sponsorship world has lost confidence in the WPBSA.

Peter Ebdon, the reigning world champion, supports the status quo, believing that "the game should be run by and for the players", but this ignores the failure of this system over a long period of time.

The merits of the case may not decide the argument. Within an electorate of 78, there is a web of alliances and enmities, and half-a-dozen floating voters may be decisive.