Ssb - jungle jimmy gets wembley wildcard

[MySockPuppet]

Jimmy White will today be unveiled as the remaining wildcard for next month's Wembley Masters.

White, the 1984 champion, has recently had his popularity boosted through an appearance on ITV's 'I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here.'

He will play Mark King on the opening day, January 10.

This will be a disappointment for Liang Wenbo, the outstanding favourite for the wildcard having reached the Shanghai Masters final earlier this season.

Nobody can argue with White's popular appeal, especially in London.

However, he is currently 62nd in the provisional rankings so many will question whether he really deserves this call up.


More...

[superaussie]

joke decision

Im not a liang fan but he thoroughly deserved the wild card

shocking decision

[Monique]

this is ridiculous ...

[superaussie]

Its obvious liang was given the impression he would get it thats why he didnt enter masters qualifying as it would have been good match practice for him, so it doesnt make sense why he pulled out unless he was told he would get the wildcard.

A ranking final and a quarter final at the uk this season was more than enough to get it.

Sadly it seems being on a reality tv show is more important than doing well in ranking events

[spike]

What a joke!!

[Mal]

Well, I actualy thought Liang not competing in the UK should invalidate his chances of a wildcard as I think this showed he didn't have the desire - what if someone like Walden or Cope (or whoever) had come through to reach the final or win the UK - they would then probably have deserved more than Wenbo...However, having said all that, I can't agree that Jimmy White is the logical choice.

[circle]

Is this a joke?

Because its not funny!

[Looki]

Money talks.. It's obvious that Jimmy puts bums in the seats. Especially in London. Not a good decision IMO.

[Odrl]

What a sickening decision...

I've already spoken at length why Liang should get the wild card over White, and that was before the UK Championship. A lot of people were saying that Liang had it in the bag, unless another contender emerged unexpectedly at the UK. Well guess what? Liang was once again the most impressive qualifier, along with Lines, but the wild card goes to someone who decided to skip the UK Championship in order to appear on a reality show. I can't remember when I was this angry about something snooker related. If ever there was a stupid decision... The Masters lost a lot of credibility with this, and I've had my day ruined.

Here's what should happen next... The Masters wild card should be officially renamed to "White card" and given to Jimmy White every year. They should just announce it at the start of the season. Why wait until December if they're not going to take results into account anyway? If Jimmy White got it this year, when he's done absolutely nothing to deserve it, I can't see why he shouldn't just get it by default. After all, the reasons in favour of this decision will always be there.

[Matt_2745]

Awful decision, never expected it to be honest.

[wildJONESEYE]

this has to go down as the most pointless exercise any one has ever done in snooker and my god the list is endless....

what is to be gained with Jimmy White he is nearing the end of his career we need to use wild cards to promote for the future not harp back to the past...

[April madness]

A business move by Barry Hearn? Jimmy means money coming in from ticket sales. Although I guess Liang would get some support from his countrymen too.

Strange. A couple of years ago I was watching Jimmy playing a (wildcard round?) match at Wembley Arena and was thinking that this would be his last match in Masters. How wrong I was!

[qc2]

I'm a Jimmy fan as much as the next person but I can't help but sense the injustice here; Liang was more deserving of the spot.

If this is true, I only hope Jimmy goes on and gives a good account of himself.

[Looki]

I guess it's pointless to expect decent performance from Jimmy as he's quite far from the practice table atm. King to second roud then, The Boss must be delighted.

[superaussie]

This is obviously a barry hearn style move people can say its sir rod's fault but last year he gave the wild card to walden and the previous year fu neither of whom are big crowd pullers.