His remarks came after China’s Wu Yize won at the World Snooker Championship for the first time on Monday, becoming the second Chinese player and second youngest player to win the world title after Zhao Xintong beat Mark Williams to make history as the first Asian to lift the trophy last year.
He told RTHK’s Backchat programme on Thursday that the past two years had been “fantastic times for Chinese snooker”, with two Chinese snooker players winning the World Snooker Championship in two consecutive years, noting that Hong Kong would also benefit from the success of Chinese snooker.
“We are getting the trickle down effect here in Hong Kong, China as well, because any success in the region obviously invokes more interest in other people … and this gives us fantastic opportunities to find talent for the next generation, the new Marco Fu, the next Ng On-yee,” he said.
He said the results will also draw more young players to the sport after witnessing the recent success of Chinese snooker players.
“The recent results for sure will have a massive effect for us trying to attract players to the sport because we’re competing with golf, tennis, soccer, equestrian … we’ve got to try to catch these young players, get them interested in the sport,” he said.
He pointed out that the government’s support had been excellent, with funding and resources available for youth development programmes.
The government also relaxed the rules last year for snooker and billiard halls, including lowering the minimum age of entry from 16 to eight years old and extending the permitted stay for young patrons until 11pm.
Children are also allowed to enter approved establishments as early as 7am and rules prohibiting entry for those wearing school uniforms were lifted.
He added the future of snooker in Hong Kong was promising and hoped the city could attract some of the sport’s biggest starts to future events.
