The Alternative View: Snooker World Cup

In a new feature for the blog i'm teaming up with Vik Iyer who writes for comedy blog NewsFox and tweet on the account @NewsFoxSport and the aim is the feature is to offer an alternative view on the snooker than the one I offer in my usual previews.

To start Vik offers his views on the Snooker World Cup, with the aim of mixing tips along with some much needed humour. So, here's "The Alternative View": 

"The last edition of the Snooker World Cup seemed to annoy the purists quite a bit – which is probably why I thoroughly enjoyed it. The moaners probably wanted every singles game to be best-of-19 so that the tournament was a 'true test'. But the entertainment of alternate shot doubles far outweighs such snipes.

There's the obvious point that such a format gives lesser nations a chance to shine and there certainly were some shocks in the tournament's last outing in Thailand.

It also forces a fiercely individual sport into an entirely different dynamic. The organisers have missed a huge trick in not pairing Ronnie O'Sullivan with Mark Selby (yes I know they did it from rankings)  – their attempts to play alternate shot doubles would've resulted in more rows than Big Brother. It would have been TV gold.

Before I get to my thoughts on who'd win, it's worth noting that bizarrely Mark Allen isn't competing for Northern Ireland meaning they are unseeded. It's also surprising that there's no Finnish team but then again after Robin Hull they'd probably have to get in one of Santa's reindeer.

This format does kind of remind me of local league snooker  - it somehow feels more appropriate that the players vie for microwave pizzas rather than huge wads of cash.

That said, it seems the way to approach this from a betting standpoint is to assume that hard matchplay could well win this. The other thing that is key is the way players gel. Yet the main contenders for this title – China, Scotland England and Wales – all rather fit that bill. The players know each other really well and they all know how to win tournaments the hard way.

Personally I can't look past the England team – Bingham and Selby is an awesome combo . They're good friends and their games complement each other too. The main threats outside of the big four will come from Australia, the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland. Australia are the threat here but it would need a big improvement from Vinnie Calabrese. Semis is their best hope and I suspect the bookies won’t offer great odds either.

I don't see any of the dark horses getting past the semis. Thailand have enough nous to make the quarters as do India who possess two players – Aditya Mehta and Pankaj Advani – who can handle this disjointed format. But an inspired run from young hotshots team China B is the only hope for a shock World Cup winner in my view.

For a mad, low punt accie, I’d suggest England to win and – if your betting account allows it – add in Thailand, Brazil and India to qualify from the groups. Second is going to be a dogfight in Groups A. B and D so the value may be in identifying the surprises at this stage."

I hope you enjoyed that and I hope their is much more to come from Vik on the blog in the future, as he certainly has a strong opinion on the game and offers a great alternative view and he certainly knows his stuff.