Why not make Wuxi World Cup into another ranking event?

The snooker World Cup won't be anywhere near as exciting as the Football World Cup was a year ago - that's coming from a snooker fan.

Ireland's Ken Doherty tweeted that there was ONLY 7 days until the World Cup, and he additionally commented he "couldn't wait. "

However,what is the point of this event?

Do World Cups really work for individual sports? I am not sure they have the same buzz as the team ones.

Hosted in Wuxi, China, this year, why not just make this into another ranking event, or, if not, scrap it altogether?

What value does this tournament actually add to the snooker calendar?

What makes it more bizarre is that China have two teams in the tournament this time around.

Does it cease to actually be a World Cup if one nation pitches two teams?

It's a bit like England pitching two teams in Football, the A and the B team. Let's face it, England's B team would probably do much better than the first team!

China's snooker team/s comprises of two ranked players, and the other of two up and coming Chinese teenagers.

WORLD CUP SNOOKER SINCE 1979

Believe it or not, there has been a World Cup for snooker since 1979, and it used to be hosted on the BBC.

in the mid 1980s the BBC broadcast six tournaments nationally: the World Championship, UK Championship, Masters, Grand Prix, Pot Black and the World Team Cup now just World Cup.

Now, they have the Masters, the UK Championship, and the World Championship, with ITV hosting the Champion of Champions, the World Grand Prix, and, Sky host everything else such as the World Seniors, the snooker shootout, the Shanghai Masters, and the Australian Open to name but a few.

The World Cup ceased to be a televised tournament as ITV didn't renew a contract for it in 2001, and, ten years later, the World Cup returned with Ding Junhui and Lian Wenbo winning it for China.

The beef with this tournament is the set up. Although not a ranking event, the players do not have much time to get into a rhythm.

Players are paired up in teams, and play alternate shots.

England is represented by the two World Championship winners of the last two years, Mark Selby and this year's addition to the trophy Stuart Bingham.

You've got Ireland's Ken Doherty and Fergal O'Brien.

Scotland have John Higgins and Stephen Maguire.

Northern Ireland have Gerrard Greene, who has just qualified for the Australian Open, and Joe Swail, who did not.

Notable pick of the teams is Iran, who have Hossein Vafaei Ayouri and Ehsan Heydari Nezhad. Hossein has also just qualified for his first ranking event since the Shanghai Masters, after having VISA problems earlier this year.

There's apparently a married couple competing from Norway, Kurt Maflin and his wife Anita. Maflin was a qualifier and almost knocked Mark Selby out of the first round in the World Championship in April.

Players are competing for a hefty £130,000 top prize, that's £65,000 each for the privilege of representing their countries.

I suppose you could ask the question, does this make there any point to snooker being in the Olympics?

For me, the set up would have to be much improved for this tournament AND an Olympic style tournament for this to get my juices REALLY flowing. It just does not have the same excitement as the prospect of the Australian Open to be held at the end of this month in Bendigo.

What would be a better idea would be to scrap this tournament and make a mini snooker shootout instead?