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Old Guard giving way to young guns at Snooker's Malta Cup

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David Croft says the big names in snooker are finally on the wane...

I was having a chat just a few days ago with Radio 5 Live's snooker man Philip Studd, a top bloke despite being a Spurs fan. We were discussing how snooker seemed to be going through a bit of a revival at the moment and with it the balance of power appeared to be swinging towards the younger players. Hardly the most riveting conversation I know, but we did eventually get round to how much better the Hammers were doing this year, but as a Spurs fan Phil was keen to change the subject as fast as he could.

What he did do though was to confirm my feelings that snooker was fast becoming a young man's sport and that the old guard were on their way out. Take Jimmy White for instance. The Whirlwind hasn't won a single match in qualifying for the ranking tournaments this season. Mark Williams, a double world champion, is talking about retirement such has been the decline of his form recently. Steve Davis and John Parrott are struggling too and - shock of shocks - Stephen Hendry has now dropped out of the top ten for the first time since Noah looked up at the sky and thought to himself 'I think we're in for a spot of rain'. Hendry keeps insisting that his game is fine in practice and that he's potting as well as ever, but the evidence come the pressure of the match is very different. At the age of 39 is the seven time World Champion on the way out? Well I hope not but it's not surprising that his form and that of his peers has started to dip.

Snooker may not be the most athletic of sports but it does require a huge amount of concentration over long periods, and as I'm fast becoming aware, your ability to concentrate does decline as the years advance. Eyesight too doesn't get any better and that's bound to affect your ability to hit the long pots. But most significant has to be the fact that after spending so many years at the top, the motivation and dedication of the likes of Hendry, Williams, White and Davis can't be as high as it once was. Mark Williams has even admitted as much and let's face it you can't blame him. His ambition now can't be what it used to be, but the trouble for Mark and co is that there are a host of players coming through, all hungry for success and packing the ammunition to match their ambition.

Ding Junhui, 20 years old and a world champion in waiting, trust me on that one. The man responsible for getting 50 million of his countrymen to watch his Masters match against Marco Fu, and it was 4am back in China at the time. Mark Selby the current Masters Champion is only 24, and if you look at the top 6 in Betfair's market for the forthcoming Malta Cup, only the world champion John Higgins is over 27.

Talking of that Malta Cup we've a new format this year that could make life a little easier for Betfair punters. The field of 20 have been split into 4 groups and each player faces each other in a round robin 6 frame match, the group winners then go through to the semi finals. That means there's bound to be some meaningless snooker towards the end of the group stage.

I do expect Mark Selby to go well after his Masters triumph but although the price on Betfair's winners market looks attractive at [11.5] he's in a tough group and is no certainty to ease past Stephen Maguire and Shaun Murphy. John Higgins as the only true heavyweight player in the top half of the draw has to be respected, Betfairs punters can side with the world champion at [7.2], but my tip is that man Ding. Yes, he's the favourite, but the price of [6.6] is still good value, his group doesn't look too threatening - Dott, Ebdon, Williams and Dale - not a quartet to strike fear into an opponents heart on their current form. So I take Ding to win but I'll also have a nibble at a price of [17.0] from Group 2 on Marco Fu as well. Should they both make the final the whole of China might stay up to catch it!