The English team in this year's World Cup of Darts consists of Luke Humphries and Michael Smith. This tournament comes too soon for teen sensation Luke Littler.
Littler has dominated these first six months on the Pro Tour with multiple titles, but he is not in the World Cup of Darts. Perhaps to the surprise of many darts fans, but it actually makes a lot of sense when you consider that the two highest ranked Tour Card holders are selected for each country.
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Humphries and Smith occupy the first and third places in the world rankings, Littler currently occupies “only” 25th place, while the 17-year-old is ranked 1st. English people If he continues like this, it will only be a matter of time before he can play for the England team.
James Wade already participated in the World Darts Championship
nonsense
But not this year. “There have been a lot of calls to include Luke Littler in the England squad this year, but World Cup teams have always been built based on rankings,” said James Wade, who has represented England in the past and has been active in the World Cup of Darts. “It makes no sense that some people want to change that just to get their favourite players into the tournament. Luke will be there soon, on his own merit.”
An opinion with which former world champion Dennis Priestley can only agree: “Sky Sports and the PDC could change the selection process for the World Cup of Darts so that Luke can participate this year and they would not even receive much criticism by his fans,” he says.
“But if they did, it would cause a lot of unrest among the players. They might even boycott if the rules were changed too late. This reminds me of the attempt to quickly bring Raymond van Barneveld to the Premier League when he left the BDO. “
By Sylke Puck