Although the tournament is less than two months away now, information concerning snooker’s revived World Cup which will be staged in Thailand this summer has been relatively thin on the ground this year. According to reports however, the competing nations for 2011 have now been revealed…
This season’s World Cup will be staged in Thailand between the 11th-17th July 2011 and according to articles here and here, the 20 competing nations will be as follows:
- Wales
- Scotland
- England
- China
- Australia
- Northern Ireland
- Hong Kong
- Ireland
- Thailand (x2 as host nation)
- Germany
- Brazil
- Belgium
- Malta
- Poland
- Pakistan
- Afghanistan
- India
- Egypt
- UAE
While I am not entirely sure what criteria was used to decide the nations, it is hard to argue that there is not a truly global field in place and now the speculation will mount as to who will be competing for each team.
Perhaps the list will look something like this, note that these are just my guesses and not official:
- Wales – Mark Williams, Matthew Stevens
- Scotland – John Higgins, Stephen Maguire
- England – Mark Selby, Ali Carter
- China – Ding Junhui, Liang Wenbo
- Australia – Neil Robertson, Vinnie Calabrese?
- Northern Ireland – Mark Allen, Gerard Greene
- Hong Kong – Marco Fu, ?
- Ireland – Ken Doherty, Fergal O’Brien
- Thailand (x2 as host nation) – James Wattana, Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon, Issara Kachaiwong, Noppon Saengkham
- Germany – Lasse Munstermann, ?
- Brazil – Igor Figueiredo, ?
- Belgium – Bjorn Haneveer, Luca Brecel
- Malta – Tony Drago, Alex Borg
- Poland – Kacper Filipiak, ?
- Pakistan – Shahram Changezi?, ?
- Afghanistan – ?, ?
- India – Aditya Mehta, Lucky Vatnani
- Egypt – ?, ?
- UAE – Mohamed Shehab?, Mohamed Al-Joker?
Feel free to speculate below as to who else may make up the entry list for this summer’s tournament…