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Do Chinese parents push children too hard? Snooker star Ding Junhui suggests how to avoid repeat of match-fixing scandal
- Ding hopes to see more focus on life balance for young stars after 10 Chinese players’ bans for fixing and betting offences
- ‘In China, they love to see players grow up so quick. They want to see them at 20 years old winning everything, and it’s too much pressure,’ world No 7 says
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Tom Bellin Sheffield
Repeats of the Chinese snooker match-fixing scandal can be prevented partly through less short-termism and not driving teenage players so hard, the country’s No 1 Ding Junhui has said.
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Last year’s bans handed to 10 Chinese players, two of them for life, for fixing and betting offences represented the worst instance of corruption in the sport’s history.
The investigation halted several promising careers, bringing down potential future world champions in Yan Bingtao and Zhao Xintong, as well as exposing the loneliness, financial struggles and gambling habits of the young stars involved.
Asked how to avoid a recurrence, Ding, who had no connection to the scandal, argued for a change in mindset.
“We have nearly 20 players aged between 18 and 25, so hopefully they can keep learning and still be doing well after 25,” world No 7 Ding said. “I think that is the right way to go.
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