World Snooker Championship 2023: Barry Hearn says sport is an easy target for protesters
- Published
Play halted as protesters delay Crucible matches
Cazoo World Championship |
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Venue: Crucible Theatre, Sheffield Dates: 15 April-1 May |
Coverage: Watch live on BBC TV and Red Button with uninterrupted coverage on BBC iPlayer, the BBC Sport website and the BBC Sport app |
Former World Snooker Tour chairman Barry Hearn said sport was an "easy target" after protesters disrupted snooker's World Championship on Monday.
One protester covered a table with orange powder - causing a match to be postponed - as another caused a delay by trying to glue herself to the table.
A man and a woman have been arrested and released on bail.
Play resumed as normal on Tuesday at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre, with "increased security measures".
Extra security has been positioned within the arena and on the floor of play and only very small bags will be allowed in and will be "vigorously searched", said the World Snooker Tour (WST).
In a statement, the WST said the security of players and fans is "always our top priority" and it has "robust measures in place at all times".
The protesters wore T-shirts apparently in support of climate change activists Just Stop Oil, which subsequently posted online to claim responsibility for the disruption to the event.
It came two days after animal rights activists delayed the start of the Grand National by getting on to the Aintree course.
Just Stop Oil has disrupted a number of sporting events in recent times, with individuals attempting to tie themselves to goalposts during Premier League matches, and a group of protestors invading the track during last year's Formula 1 British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
"Am I surprised? Not really," Hearn, who founded promotions company Matchroom Sport, told BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast. "Sport is such an easy target.
"Something that is so accessible like the Crucible. So small, so private - you can reach out and almost shake hands with the players.
"In my mind, it didn't do their cause anything but harm. They're not making a point at all. They're just disruptive and when protest is so disruptive that it stops people getting value for money and having bought tickets, they are robbed of that opportunity. It is a form of theft."
Inevitable relationship with fans will change - Murphy
Former world champion Shaun Murphy said he believed Monday's incident could change the future of the sport.
"I have been saying for a long time that security protocols and access are too weak," he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"Snooker is a soft target and I would hate it, but I see it as an inevitability for the relationship between fans and sport to change.
"One of the lovely things about the Crucible is they say the crowd on the front row can literally reach out and touch the players or the table in play but yesterday we saw it enacted in real life."
Hearn said venues and promotors would look again at security to see if any changes needed to be made but it would be difficult.
He also said there needed to be "clearer defined penalties" and "deterrent to stop others".
"The Crucible is so small and private but how do you stop it when you have events like the Open golf or Wimbledon?" he added.
"Imagine the players and officials. Their first reaction will be fear. For the snooker players, we are in the sport and entertainment business. Our job is to entertain. Please let us go on with our work."
What happened?
Robert Milkins and Joe Perry were playing their first-round match on table one at the Crucible when a man entered the playing area to gasps from the crowd, jumped and kneeled on the table before emptying a bag of orange powder.
At the same time, a woman attempted to glue herself to the other table, causing a delay in Mark Allen's match with Fan Zhengyi. She was stopped by referee Olivier Marteel, only managing to grab hold of the middle pocket.
Marteel prevented the woman from accessing the table before security arrived and carried both protesters away.
Staff then began to clean up, with master of ceremonies Rob Walker hoovering the table in a bid to get the match back under way as quickly as possible.
While play resumed in the Allen v Fan match after a 40-minute break, the other table was covered and had to be re-clothed overnight.
South Yorkshire Police said they had arrested a 25-year-old man and 52-year-old woman on suspicion of criminal damage over the incident, and they remained in custody on Tuesday morning.
It was unnerving - Perry
The match between Milkins and Perry will resume at 19:00 BST on Tuesday with the second session from 09:30 on Thursday.
Perry told BBC Sport he had been in "a state of shock" as the incident unfolded.
"You don't expect to see anything like that happen anywhere, especially here," he said. "I didn't know what to think at the beginning. Once it was all done and over, I tried to relax, but it was a bit unnerving at the time.
"We will go again tonight and it will be OK. The delay is a bit awkward but we have to deal with it."
Speaking to BBC Sport after his first-round win over David Grace, Scotland's four-time world champion John Higgins, said: "If you go to some of the other sporting events you've got the beefed up security and superstars."In our game I don't think we think of ourselves as superstars and we maybe don't look at snooker as a big worldwide sport."
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