What a Classic!

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One of the sadly missed tournaments is the Dubai Classic. This great event began life in 1988 and really put the Middle East on the snooker map.
It ran for a few years and then became the Thailand Classic when it moved there in 1995. Sadly the UAE had been devoid of snooker for many years and only ran the ill faited Bahrain Classic a few years ago.

I know the former professional player David Roe, does a lot of work in this region by coaching snooker clubs. So the appetite for snooker is still there but will World Snooker capitalise on it? I lived in Abu Dhabi in the early 1980s and know that this region thrives on outward investment. A large number of UK citizens live in this area, choosing it for the lifestyle, hot weather and high salaries.

So to me, this really is a no brainer, formulate a tournament that either runs with 128, 32 or 16 players from the tour or even use Abu Dhabi and Dubai to host two events using varied player combinations. Then you could see what worked and fine tune it for future years. It would attract local sponsors so attaining investment and engage local talent by offering several wild card positions at the event to bring in a larger audience. Sounds simple but a trick has definitely been missed here by World Snooker.

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